Cycle
by SplashTOMATO
Summary: COMPLETE! Digimon Savers/Data Squad, ToMaTo Tohma x Masaru/Thomas x Marcus yaoi. "Am I forgetting something important? What's so good about being strong again?" Strays off canon at the end of ep 38. w00t longest non-crossover Savers fic!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Cycle  
Series: Digimon Savers (Digimon Data Squad)  
Pairing: Tohma x Masaru, ToMaTo~  
Disclaimer: Digimon belongs to Toei, not me. This is for fans~  
Warnings/Summary: "Am I forgetting something important? What's so good about being strong again?" NaNoWriMo 2008 fic.

No matter how old this fic gets, it's buried very deep into my memory and I would love to from you if you've enjoyed it. Please review! It truly helps to inspire me to write more.

Masaru is such a 14-year-old who doesn't get what's going on with adolescence. ._.;

So I'm trying Masaru semi-P.O.V. for my first Savers fic. :) Mostly because he's easier to me? I'm not sure. orz  
It's mostly omnipresent P.O.V. anyway.

Spoilers for the entire series. Warping of things that happened in the last stretch of the canon series anyway? Why yes! :D

-"-"-"-"-

Here Masaru was, stuck in the hospital, unable to do much physically with his bottom half as he toddled around in the wheelchair. Without his usual physical self, he felt completely useless even though DATS was in the middle of a mildly odd, long-term crisis in the Digital World. To that extent, he wanted to get back on his feet as soon as possible.

But there was much more to it than wanting to get back into action, reasons that would only arise to Masaru when he had all this extra time to think about it. In a sense, to remind himself, like Captain Satsuma had said.

That's right. They were in this for the sake of harmony with the Digimon. Even to the extent that he would dive into battle without a second thought for his own self, he was fighting to protect those he held dear.

Yet, as he stared at the beautifully sunny skies outside his hospital room window, he couldn't help but imagine what he would be doing now if he hadn't met Agumon, if he hadn't joined DATS. Things would probably be completely different. No, they definitely would.

Instead of being in the hospital, he'd probably be out in the streets looking for fights. He knew where all of the bullies and delinquents from each of the junior high and high schools in the district hung out. He'd been through every single one of them. And of course, there'd be new ones every semester to replace the ones who had changed, graduated, moved away or whatever. And he'd test those new ones out and break 'em in.

Now that he was back in the real world after all his experiences with the Digimon, he realized he had lost all interest in fighting those bullies and delinquents. In fact, those three weeks where he had obediently done menial tasks at DATS probably would've been impossible for him to tolerate if it had been a year ago. He would've blown up and done some serious damage to the other employees before letting himself do all that boring work.

Had the Digimon really changed him all that much?

Of course, that would lead him to thinking back on what had happened since meeting the Digimon. Starting with Agumon, he had met everyone at DATS, and he had learned it was the very organization that came out of the organization his own father had been working for.

And that his father was still alive.

He still remembered that moment clearly in his mind, when he had heard the boisterous and confident words from Captain Satsuma. His father was still alive. The blueprints for the Digivices he had sent back to the real world were proof of that. It was thanks to his father that he was there, fighting at DATS. Masaru was connected to the Digimon from the start, even before he met Agumon.

Ever since then, he had lost all reason to pick on those insignificant delinquents to kill his open time. Ever since then, he had lost total sense of "open" time. He had found new meaning to staying in DATS, and from then on, his direction in life had taken a new turn.

There was hope to find his father out there in the Digital World. The parental figure who had been missing from his life for ten long years... The parental figure Masaru had been subconsciously chasing after for ten long years... And now he could actively search for him and bring him back.

As naive as he was back then, he thought that moment was the biggest turning point in his (back then) 14-year-old life... when it fact, it was only the start of them.

At some point in his thoughts, he would incidentally touch his neck, and a flash of other memories would rush through him... memories that would set him on a completely different, but not completely unrelated track of thoughts. A confusing, complicated track of thoughts. And a track of thoughts that would invade him more and more as time passed...

" Tohma..."

-"-"-"-"-

" DON'T... Don't talk about him."

Tightly clutching the red-patterned Digiegg in his arms, Masaru brought his forlorn gaze downwards. He didn't want to be thinking about that at such a perilous time.

It was too late.

-"-"-"-"-

The scene replayed in his head over and over, refusing to relinquish sleep to him. After each replay, he'd toss and turn in the thin set of sheets he was enveloped in, grumbling as he realized that the discomfort wasn't helping any. And then he'd notice he was making the most noise in the underground shelter where his family and the other DATS members were sleeping. Normally, it'd be Agumon who would be the loudest with all his snoring and sleep talk.

And then he'd remember Agumon. And the regret would come to rewind that scene and play it again.

He thought he'd never have one of these nights. And of all times, right when he needed to conserve all the manpower he had... in various senses of the word.

He tossed again. Why was this cement so freaking difficult to sleep on? At least if Agumon were there, he'd have something less stiff to lean back on. Even if the Digimon was a loud sleeper, he was also a heavy one and wouldn't even notice if he were used as a mattress.

But Agumon wasn't there. Well, he WAS, but not in the way Masaru wanted him to be. Why did things have to end up this way? Was it his fault? Was it... HIS fault...? Mr. I'm-too-good-for-you-we've-been-together-all-this-time-but-now-I've-decided-to-change-sides-and-"make-a-new-world-with-Kurata"-because-I'm-soooo-sane...

...

And then the possibility of leaning back on that weirdo would tempt him, and he didn't even know WHY it had to be HIM. He wasn't there either. It was pointless thinking about him. But he thought about him anyway.

Agh. That scene again.

Damn it. Damn it all.

-"-"-"-"-

" If Kurata's as smart as you think he is, it's not like he's going to come charging at ElDoradimon again after finding out what we did to those other Gizmon:XT. We'll just be sitting around wasting our time while he goes off killing Digimon everywhere else!"

It was midday. After the assembly in the morning that ended up turning into a rally, they were making preparations for the night assault. Or at least, all of the other Digimon inside the capital were. Baromon, extremely persistent in letting "the savior" and his comrades rest until the attack commenced, had led them into luxurious bedrooms... which actually just consisted of masses of the usual crimson cushions they used almost everywhere in the capital. There were shades to cover the windows, but a considerable amount of light still passed through and gave the overall atmosphere a similar crimson hue. Yoshino had gone into her own room with Lalamon, separate from the boys. Ikuto and Yushima, their Digimon, and even Agumon and Gaomon also eventually went to find their own rooms after growing tired with a certain argument going on...

" That isn't my point! I'm saying we need to take some time to develop a strategy to lure Kurata to fight us here where we have the greatest advantage! If we head out there, it'll create a greater risk for ALL of us!"

" Risk? Don't you know how many Digimon we have willing to fight here? What's the risk? If we don't go tonight, I doubt we'll get any better chance to finish Kurata for good!"

" What, do you think everything will be solved if only Kurata is taken down?"

" Yeah!"

" Think again! We'll still have to take down every single Gizmon:XT he has out there, and those Bio Digimon... We let them off the hook last time, so they might be up to something the next time we meet them."

" Well, whatever! It doesn't matter how many there are or how strong they get! I plan to beat them all up anyway!"

" Masaru..."

They had been standing on the cushions face-to-face the whole time, when Tohma finally turned his side away and sat down, holding his forehead. He gave a long, heavy sigh.

" Look, it's already been decided. I'm gonna head out with Ikuto tonight, and we're gonna bust Kurata's camp and end this for all. Even if it's a trap, we'll bust through it, and that'll be that." Saying that, Masaru also turned to one side and sat down cross-legged, following Tohma's example, except he brought his arms out to set his hands on his knees. His obviously tense posture glowed with irritation.

Tohma sighed again. " Fine. It's not like I could stop you anyway. Let's just get some rest while we still can."

" Ah? Rest? Like I could do that..."

" Don't you know that's why Baromon brought us to these rooms in the first place?"

" Eh? Oh... I wasn't really paying attention."

" Geez, you're so caught up in defeating Kurata that you even forgot about resting. Go lie down already."

True. Even for the last time he went to sleep, it was because the other Digimon had forced some kind of sleeping gas on them when they had entered ElDoradimon. They had slept right through the broad daylight into the evening, then woken up to find themselves tied up. And it was just about the time for the sleep cycle to kick in...

Masaru half-consciously laid back on the cushions, feeling the tenseness in his system instantly starting to simmer down. He stared straight up at the stone ceiling. Tohma did the same, although he kept his eyes shut.

The silence began to settle in. He knew Tohma was a quiet sleeper, but Masaru oddly felt some white noise was missing. How long had it been since he'd slept alone? He probably hadn't ever since Agumon came and they had joined DATS. Now he was just alone with Tohma... just the two of them...

W... What, huh? His mind had started wandering into some strange, uncharted zone that was making his face heat up and preventing him from sleeping. Concentrate on sleeping. Concentrate...

" Oi," Masaru said in a much lower, reduced-adrenaline tone, " Aren't the others coming back?"

" They're probably asleep already."

" Mm..." He glanced to the sides of the room, noticing the loads of unoccupied cushion space surrounding the two of them. Tohma's shoulder was practically touching his, so he felt like he should move over, but at the same time, he didn't feel like bothering.

Strange. Just moments ago, they were arguing almost like they once were when they had started out in DATS. But something felt different this time. During the early DATS missions, Masaru felt like the genius was just trying to stubbornly stick to his usual procedures and had no toleration for Masaru's methods. That Tohma... he had lightened up about his way of fighting back then, so why was it coming back at a time like this? It was kind of annoying...

But this time, things were more complicated. Tohma was claiming ElDoradimon as a whole was at stake, which Masaru kind of recognized, but ElDoradimon was such a HUGE Digimon and they had so many other Digimon to support it. He just couldn't imagine those silly Gizmon:XT being a major threat to something so huge, especially now that they were there.

' I mean, I can understand why he'd want to be as cautious as possible when it comes to ElDoradimon, being the big 'ol holy capital that houses tons of Digimon... but taking down Kurata as soon as possible will save them all in the end, so isn't this for the best?'

He would've thought Tohma would let up eventually and start to see things his way, but that didn't happen. And he could tell that Tohma still wasn't satisfied with him going after Kurata. What the heck?

" If you think I'm just being overly stubborn, guess again."

The blond cut right through his thoughts.

" Hmph. What else am I supposed to think?" Masaru finally gave up on staring at the ceiling and shut his eyes. He knew he was having a hard time getting to sleep as it was, but at least he could give his eyelids a rest. He did honestly want to get some sleep while he could, but he wasn't so sure about the chances with Tohma being the way he was.

" ..."

Masaru sensed Tohma's loss for words and took it as a cue to end the idle chat and get back to rest. That genius was the one to bring it up in the first place, after all.

And for some reason, he could feel that genius staring right at him even though he wasn't looking. With all the time they had spent together in DATS, he'd learned to sense these things about Tohma since the blond kept quiet most of the time. He wasn't used to it at first, so it really unnerved him back then, but he had gradually figured out that there was always something more to the silence...

He slowly opened one eye and confirmed that Tohma had turned to his side and was... staring at him. Quite intensely. " W... What..." he said cautiously.

Tohma, unmoving, spoke as if in a state of deep thought. " You remember why we're taking down Kurata, right?"

Masaru smirked, relaxing. That was easy. " For our friends, of course. The Digimon."

Tohma blinked quickly a few times, then smiled lightly in return. " Yeah."

Hmm, so that answer satisfied him. At least they were still thinking on the same lines on that end. Maybe he could turn the situation around... " Then doesn't it make it all the better to know that we're going to defeat him tonight?"

" Masaru..." came the slow response. It was a slow response, yet not a lax one, which set off Masaru slightly.

" Come on, have more confidence. Can't you trust me?"

Tohma's eyes widened, but he gave a solid answer. " I trust you, Masaru. You're quite simple-minded, but that's exactly what makes you trustworthy."

" Gee, thanks," Masaru responded with partial sarcasm. Still, he could feel a little smile creeping inside, knowing that Tohma was feeling in better terms with him at the comment. Although he couldn't quite figure out why he himself felt... a little more happy than he probably should've. But he needed to get to sleep. Hearing enough, he turned to face away from Tohma, resting the arm below him under one layer of the silky, cool cushions, and shut his eyes once more.

There was a long pause before the silence broke again. " It's just... I've had a bad feeling about all this ever since we encountered ElDoradimon."

To Tohma's new words, Masaru blinked his eyes open to see the empty wall at the side of the room. Ah... was he going to get any rest or not?

" 'A bad feeling?' Is that part of your calculations, genius?"

He heard Tohma puff air from the bottom of his throat, recognizing the sound whenever the blond felt unsettled about something. " Nevermind I mentioned it."

" No, no, wait, it's fine," Masaru said apologetically. He realized he had been too abrupt with the retort, and he didn't want to go back trying to sleep with a disgruntled Tohma. What happened to that much nicer mood just a short while ago? He groped around for words... " I didn't expect someone like you to... act upon your feelings like that."

" ...Act upon my feelings?"

He just noticed at that moment.

That was it. As much as he had thought Tohma as nothing but a cold-hearted genius at first, lately, his view on the blond was drastically changing. He wasn't quite sure when it started, he just knew that he was becoming more and more aware of it as the days passed. During the early stages, he'd just find it entertaining whenever Tohma went out of his way to be thorough, such as his extravagant appearance for Chika's birthday, or his bringing that huge machine into the Daimon residence when Puwamon had arrived.

And then there were times when Masaru found himself really relying on the other's handiness; he could still clearly remember how desperate he had been when he had wanted to get back to the Digital World and had... accidentally broken the Digital Gate equipment. He remembered feeling a little remorse after he decided to bring Ikuto to his parents and left Tohma behind at DATS to fix the equipment. As he had left the base that day, he watched Tohma's back as he endlessly tapped away at the keyboard. But Tohma had only smirked at him and called him a hopeless case like usual back then...

With the new mess they were in, their "war" against Kurata, Tohma seemed to be more serious than ever. While he had been content to go along with Masaru's whims up until then, now he was casting doubt on almost every turn that came up. Masaru didn't understand the reason for the change until now. He smiled faintly.

" Then again... You've always been like that, haven't you. You always seem like you have to plan everything out before you do anything. But in the end, you're doing it all because of what you feel, right? You're just being true to yourself like any man should. Even the reason why you're right here, right now..."

That's right. The reason why Tohma was there right now, like Masaru had said, was for the Digimon. Their friends, their comrades. He was sure Tohma would understand that.

Another long pause. Masaru, confident that he had cleared the atmosphere, went to settle back down to sleep.

...Until he felt something leaning into his back. The heat began to rise up in his cheeks again.

" Toh..." He tried moving a bit, but he found that it only brought him leaning further in. Tohma was... leaning his forehead on his back. " Wha..."

He heard another throat noise.

" I said it before, I'll say it again. This isn't one of your little school fights. If something doesn't go right..."

Masaru swallowed. Huh? He remembered having this feeling before...

Oh yeah, it was when they still had to hide from the Bio Digimon and Tohma had dived into him to keep him out of view. Or at least, he THOUGHT it was the same feeling. Then why was he getting nervous instead of fired up...?

" I-I know, Tohma. Didn't you just say you trust me?"

" I did. I do. But I'm talking about... something else..."

The leaning became heavier and Masaru could feel more warmth surrounding his backside. Tohma was getting awfully close... and what was he saying?

" Masaru... you..."

Something seemed very odd all of a sudden, like his senses were being magnified. The sound of his heart thumping seemed louder than he had ever noticed before. He could hear Tohma breathing on him too.

" T-Tohma, what are you doing..."

But no answer came. Masaru took some effort to turn his head around, but he only found that Tohma was leaning up against him, one cheek pressed up on his back, snoozing away.

" ..."

He could either shove off the blond and risk disturbing him, or he could just let it be. They didn't have any blankets to go with the breeze outside the windows, so maybe he could use the extra warmth. And not like it physically felt any better or worse than leaning up against Agumon. So after a while, he decided to let it be.

Although, Agumon didn't feel this comforting...

-"-"-"-"-

Imagine that the next time he made contact with Tohma, they were having a serious fight to the death. A serious, yet ridiculous one. What the hell was this "make a new world with Kurata" shit? Just when he thought he had come to a greater understanding with him, he goes off and makes everything confusing again.

For that moment, he had seriously wanted to kill Tohma. That moment cost ShineGreymon's sanity, and now he was unsure if Agumon would ever come back the same, or even WHEN and IF he would come back.

The same went for Tohma.

Ridiculous. Thinking about it drove him nuts.

But it wasn't just because he didn't get why Tohma would even have the faintest interest in teaming up with a bastard like Kurata. He didn't know if he could forgive Tohma for disappearing on them at such a crucial time. He could forgive and forget a lot of the things that Tohma did to tick him off (he was sure he was the same in Tohma's view), but this one...

Thinking more clearly now, there must've been a hell of a deep reason for his actions. Even if that were so, why did he have to smash it in his face? Especially after saying all that when they were in the holy capital...

Masaru felt a certain emptiness as he realized that he was the only guy in the shelter. Ikuto and Falcomon were missing in action after their tiff with MirageGaogamon and they would go searching for him in the late afternoon. They all knew Ikuto could manage on his own and they needed to stay hidden from Kurata's attention. BanchouLeomon had left... That left his mother, younger sister and the DATS girls. He was surrounded. This must've been similar to what Yoshino felt when they were in the Digital World in search of Mercurimon. But even then, Yoshino had Lalamon.

Agumon, on the other hand...

He reached out to touch Agumon's egg nestled next to him, but it was solid cold.

Damn it. Damn it all.

After having a conversation like they had, just what the hell was that so-called genius thinking? It wasn't just Tohma... It was himself. And that's what made it most difficult. If it were someone else, he could just punch it until he changed its mind. But he couldn't do that easily with himself, naturally...

Because he could still remember the warmth and comfort of Tohma leaning back on him, and something in the back of his mind wished he could have some of that warmth again instead of the thin sheets on the cement floor.

He wanted to beat himself up for feeling this way, but there was nothing he could do.

At least he could tell that Tohma was involved, so he would definitely need to give him a good punch as soon as the opportunity arrived. The next...

Right. They'd meet again. It was inevitable as long as Kurata was around. As long as they took Kurata down, Tohma would be able to come back.

Even if it was only part of the problem, he could fix it. He would. He was a man, and a man has to be able to stand up to his problems.

And a man has to get his sleep while he's at it.

Clinging onto that conviction, he finally managed to fall asleep as his thoughts delved into the depths of his consciousness.

-"-"-"-"-  
Author blab

In ep 30, they cut right to the breaking dawn after Ikuto comes in to finish off the last Gizmon XT, but we never see these guys take breaks to REST AND SLEEP once they start going after Kurata. Never! The whole scramble takes course over several days when you look at it, so when did they ever get any sleep? I figured this was the time.

If there are futons in the DATS shelter, the girls were using them. :D


	2. Chapter 2

Life was a weird thing. Just like that, Tohma was back with them like nothing horrible had ever happened between them in the first place. Well, at least there'd be times when Masaru could think it was like that. But eventually, something would remind him again that life wasn't such a simple repetitive cycle. Something would be different at every revolution.

He'd never admit it, but thanks to Tohma's return, Masaru was able to pick himself back up with renewed strength and stand up to Kurata, willing Agumon to come back to the fight. And all went well. They defeated Belphemon. They defeated Kurata and his ambitions. After he'd gone and merged himself with Belphemon, Masaru and the others got their sweet taste of victory with ShineGreymon's Burst Mode. The menacing scientist would no longer be a threat to their world or the Digital World. He'd been solidly arrested and placed under the government's custody.

But that menace had left a lot of work behind for the old DATS group.

The human world had taken a great deal of damage from Kurata's work, and it was still prone to having Digimon slip through from the Digital World. Having lost Mercurimon and the holy capital, the Digital World would be in no happy situation either. The struggle against the Seven Deadly Sins would come back into action.

After finally clearing the case with the Confidentiality Ministry, DATS was given permission to re-establish itself with the immediate order to help stabilize the situation between both worlds. Yushima showed up and spoke to the Ministry in Satsuma's stead, as their Captain was still missing in action. Yushima had reassured them that Satsuma was fine, however. He had no solid proof, but somehow his usual light-hearted attitude was enough to give everyone that reassurance.

Their old HQ had been burnt down, yet they were in need of a large area where they could set up necessary equipment. There was limited space in what had previously been Kurata's research facilities, and a majority of usable buildings in the area had been destroyed as well, so their hopes of finding an open building were close to zilch...

Until Tohma offered his mansion as a temporary station.

The Ministry explained the situation to the father Norstein, who was still at the Japanese Norstein residence with his daughter. He easily complied, saying that he was going back to Austria anyway, and his son was free to do whatever he pleased with the Japan mansion.

The DATS members who had fought in the final battle against Kurata were all there when the head Norstein had given permission to the Ministry. As well as the little girl in the wheelchair... She merely sat quietly during the entire procedure, however, as it was only when the crowd started to disperse from the Norstein residence did she start speaking... to the older man that was Tohma's father as she was carried away. The rest of the DATS members all waited to leave, curious about the supposed Norsteins they had never seen before, until Tohma implied they get going.

But just before they left the door, Masaru remembered something. " Hey guys, anybody up for a celebration at my place tonight? My mom's making a feast!"

" Really?" Yoshino's eyes seemed to dance at the word "feast." " Oh, but I already made some plans with my friends. I kind of need to calm them down about the situation too."

" Oh..."

With the magnitude of the recent incident as massive as it was, the Ministry knew they couldn't cover up everything anymore. The situation was far beyond reverse, with so many buildings destroyed and perhaps distant witnesses, for whoever would have been in the area around the early morning when they fought Belphemon. For now, they had forsaken the memory-erasing device, since the media was already catching onto them and they didn't want to risk making the mess worse. They had to do their best to keep the situation manageable and to let DATS do their job without obstruction. It was the least they could do after letting a guy like Kurata slip through their system.

" Thanks, but the two of us have people we need to contact too, and then we want to go relax in hotsprings!" Megumi slung an arm around Miki as she spoke, grinning.

" Whatever suits you girls." Masaru shrugged. " I'll see you around some other time then."

" Sure thing, Masaru!" the girls said as they continued their way out. " Hey, why don't we let PawnChessmon give the hotsprings a try too? I'm sure they'd love it!"

" Good idea, Miki! Let's do it!"

" Although my mom will be kind of sad... Hmm, I guess that just leaves you, Tohma." Masaru turned to face the blond. " Or are you going to be busy with the setup here?"

" No, we won't be able to bring in any of the equipment until tomorrow afternoon."

He paused there, however, hesitant to say more.

" Then all should be good!" Masaru chimed, grinning. " Mom and Chika have been wanting to see you too, so don't feel the need to hold back or anything."

" ....." Tohma seemed to just stare in deep thought at Masaru for a moment, but then he nodded in his usual curt fashion. " All right then. If they insist..."

" Hey, I'M the one who's inviting you." Masaru's raised his eyebrows.

Tohma gave a small laugh. " Of course. Then I'll be counting on you as the host, Masaru."

" Hmph. I'll give you the time of your life!"

The words had slipped out so naturally. He witnessed Tohma flushing slightly at his words and Masaru blinked a few times.

" Oh... okay then! If you're ready, then come on over," he said as he started marching out on the long pavement.

" Sure."

He sensed Tohma reach into step at his side.

They walked in silence to the outside of the gate and went down several blocks.

Strange. Just hours ago, he couldn't even imagine this kind of calm visiting them. All he could think about was defeating Kurata and getting his comrades back. Getting Agumon back. Getting Tohma back...

" Tohma, don't think that punch back there settles everything."

Tohma didn't say anything at first; he just turned to look at Masaru.

" I know."

They had a slight staring contest as they walked, but the bustle of the street noise around them prevented Masaru from speaking the other question nagging his mind. He decided to clear the atmosphere instead.

" But for now, it's time for celebrating. We just saved the world! Who knows if we'll ever have this kind of opportunity again."

" Ah."

" Mom's really going to enjoy having you over. She's been sad that you couldn't eat with us while we were in the shelter..."

" ......"

He'd ask later...

Although he really did want to know what was up with Tohma's behavior on ElDoradimon followed by the Kurata mess, he figured it wasn't so important to know after all. When they had been in the middle of the fight against Belphemon, the memories naturally didn't come to his mind, but now that he was given the opportunity, he had realized there were gaps between them that still existed. And normally he wouldn't even concern himself with those kinds of things, but they were bugging him now. He wasn't even sure why...

" Say, what day is it today?"

" It's April the 5th."

" Uwa, seriously?!"

" Yes..."

" My birthday was on the 2nd... I completely didn't realize."

" It was a pretty hectic couple of weeks. We all lost track of the date."

" Yeah, but still..."

" Then tonight's celebration can make up for it, right?"

A tall figure suddenly shadowed them as they turned the corner to the street of the Daimon residence. Instincts kicking in, Masaru twisted to sock the threat in the face, only to see his fist colliding with something big... and furry. He blinked.

" BanchouLeomon!"

With the sunset glaring behind the tall figure, Masaru had to squint, but he could readily tell it was the banchou. Again, the banchou had caught Masaru's fist inside his own. But unlike the previous time, there was no resent in his grip.

" Heading home, Masaru?" BanchouLeomon asked with a light smile spreading through his wide lion mouth.

" Yeah," Masaru replied, retracting his fist. " Wanna come? Mom's hosting a feast, but so far Tohma's the only other person coming."

" Hmm, a feast. That sounds nice. I'll accept your invitation."

Just like that, they continued on their way to the Daimon residence, large Digimon trailing with them. Even if BanchouLeomon had snuck up on them, he was still their guiding ally and a banchou. A banchou, like any other man, didn't need words to explain himself. Only his fists.

Luckily, no one else in the neighborhood seemed to notice the lion man walking down the street. Tohma, however, looked perplexed.

" What are you doing here, BanchouLeomon?"

" ......"

" How long have you been here?"

" I arrived here in the human world not long after all of you returned. I've been watching over all of you since then."

Tohma seemed like he wanted to ask another question, but he instead fell silent.

" I won't ask why you did what you did, but it's good that you came back. Tohma, was it?"

" Yes," Tohma replied in respect.

" Hm. Aside from that, I was a little surprised to see your combination with Masaru work so well. I was watching your battle against Belphemon."

" What?"

" Your instincts were able to tell Masaru what to do when the Burst Mode power appeared. I probably would've had to step in and instruct this boy myself if it weren't for you." He pointed to the boy in front of him.

" Ah?" Masaru turned around as if to take offense in the banchou's words, but all thought of doing so fled as he saw Tohma's expression. The blond looked like he'd come to a huge, shocking realization. Of what, Masaru had no idea. He could only sense the raw strength of that realization through the intensity of Tohma's blank gaze.

A large, furry hand settling on Masaru's hair and ruffling it up distracted him again.

" Of course, you did well in achieving that Burst Mode itself. Congratulations, Masaru."

Masaru felt himself blushing at the compliment. There was something very nostalgic about getting his hair ruffled in this situation. In fact, it was right around that time, and right around that street area where he last saw his father ten years ago...

----

" THANKS FOR THE FOOD!"

Mountains of tamagoyaki and curry covered the table. Ikuto and Falcomon were already inhaling the food, which led to Masaru yelling at them as he went to secure his share. Agumon took the opportunity to dive in as well, resulting in building chaos.

" Oh, Ikuto, you're still here," Tohma commented among the noise.

" Mom and Dad come for me tomorrow. Trip to Yokohama is too long to come today."

" See? Aren't you glad you have family in this world, Ikuto?" Masaru said between gobbles of curry.

" I hear your father wants to help DATS again, so we'll still get to see each other," said Tohma, " You guys were a great help, Ikuto, Falcomon."

Falcomon gave an honest little blush at the compliment, while Ikuto just "hmped" with a grin and continued to chow down.

" Friends are always strong! It's a given!" he proclaimed.

" I won't be there to make sure you're staying clean, but make sure you take your baths regularly!" Chika said to Ikuto. " If you don't..."

Tohma turned towards Masaru while Chika and Ikuto's (one-sided) conversation continued on the other end of the table. " Your little sister is fearsome as always."

" Hmm?" Masaru hadn't even been paying attention since all of it had been going into the food in front of him. " Hurry up and eat before it's all gone, you guys."

Tohma, Gaomon and BanchouLeomon still hadn't touched their chopsticks. Tohma and Gaomon quickly joined in, but BanchouLeomon just kept on watching the scene at the table. Sayuri was sitting next to BanchouLeomon on their side of the table, except she hadn't started eating either. In fact, she seemed to be completely dazed out.

" Oi, Mom. You okay?" Masaru had never really seen his mother daze out like that. BanchouLeomon waved a hand in front of her face.

" Oh!" she said with a slight jump. " I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Please, help yourself all you like, BanchouLeomon-san."

The banchou nodded and took a tamagoyaki in one bite. The others watched in awe and slight shock as an uncharacteristically satisfied smile arose on his muzzle.

And as such, their meal was lively as ever, as if welcoming the return to peace with open arms.

----

BanchouLeomon excused himself not long after the meal, promising that they'd meet again soon. Sayuri asked where he'd be going, but he made no answer and simply left. She could have easily insisted, but instead she merely watched as the Digimon departed into the distance, gakuran flapping against the wind.

The nightly activities consisted of mostly board games, as usual, and even Tohma managed to get his forehead flicked at several times. Before they knew it, the sun was long gone from the horizon and Sayuri had to interrupt the games to tell Ikuto to take a bath. Usually, Agumon and Falcomon would go after Ikuto and Masaru, but...

" I suppose I should be heading back then," Tohma rose to his feet, game pieces still covering the board on the floor.

Sayuri stepped in with her usual courteous manner. " Tohma-kun, why don't you stay for the night?"

Tohma's eyebrows visibly raised. " Eh, but I couldn't.."

" No need to hold back. I was hoping the others would've come because I would have asked them as well. I'm sure you have much to catch up with Masaru. How about it, Masaru?"

" Huh?" He had actually felt his heart jump at his mother's words. Tohma... sleeping over...? After everything they had gone through, this was... a little sudden, wasn't it? Wait, why was he thinking that he needed that kind of mental preparation anyway? It was just Tohma... Just...

Just Tohma...

" Sure," he said before he could really think against it.

He could feel Tohma staring at him now as Sayuri clapped her hands together, satisfied. What had he just gotten himself into?

Not only that, but he was going to be bathing WITH Tohma. Sayuri arranged it so that Agumon and Falcomon went with Ikuto, and Gaomon wasn't the type to need baths daily. In fact, he had already gone to sleep in the Digivice. That just left the two of them...

Masaru was already on his last soak inside the bathtub before Tohma even entered the washroom.

When Tohma walked in, he saw Masaru sitting back on the wall, "casually" soaking up the water heat. He sighed.

And as Tohma started up the shower head next to the tub, he started off a conversation at the same time. " You went off to unlock a power beyond the Ultimate level. Reckless as always. You really are something."

" Hey, that recklessness saved two worlds. You're still complaining?"

Tohma chuckled. " I'm not complaining. I'm just still a little..."

Silence. Whatever it was, he definitely didn't look like he was going to tell Masaru. Maybe he didn't want to know. Either way, that attitude was bugging him.

" Whatever. We won. It's the results that matter, remember?"

" Results... ah."

Tohma went on to rinse his hair, ending their conversation.

...Where was the opposition? Normally, Masaru would expect Tohma to hold a better argument than this, but something was obviously bothering the blond. He changed his mind. He DID want to know.

" So what's your deal? Bitter about not being so Mr. Perfect anymore?" He asked as Tohma finished washing his hair.

Tohma didn't reply at first. Turning off the shower, he just stood up and stepped leg first between Masaru's legs in the bathtub.

" ?!"

" Move over."

Tohma brought his other leg in, refusing Masaru any extra leg space.

" Okay, okay, I got it. I got it," he said hastily as he retreated to half the tub.

They soaked up the water heat for about a minute before Tohma spoke. " How long has it been since I've used a Japanese style bath..."

But it wasn't like Masaru could say anything about that. Instead of answering, he squirted some water at Tohma with his palms.

" Hey..."

" Enough dawdling. Tell me what's on your mind already."

Seeing Masaru's piercing gaze, Tohma sighed in defeat. " Masaru, back then, you... you said I should atone with my life."

" ......" A whirl of bad memories came back to him at the reminder. He'd said that in the midst of the bout of rage he was regretting the most now. How... deeply had Tohma taken those words?

" ...I mean, what I really wanted to say is that... the Burst power... It really saved us back there. I'm glad you found it, Masaru."

Huh? He'd said something so terrible to Tohma and now he was getting complimented? " The... The others have Burst Modes, right?"

" I would safely assume so," Tohma replied. " We have Burst Digivices, after all. It's just a matter of bringing them out... if it's ever necessary from this point."

" Hmph. Who knows. ...Speaking of which, how DID you know how to activate the Burst Mode when it showed up? BanchouLeomon was talking about it... and you weren't even around when he explained its existence..."

" ......I sensed it in my heart."

Masaru froze. Sure, he'd heard something similar earlier, when he had punched the lights out of Tohma before fighting Belphemon... but this time, something seemed way out of context.

" The warmth of your Digisoul... it reached us all, Masaru. It's your power."

" Geez, I thought there was an actual scientific explanation to it." Masaru tried to sound disappointed, but somehow it wasn't quite coming out.

" Nope. When it comes to you, it's just that simple sometimes."

" Hey, what's that supposed to mean? What do you mean, simple?"

" I'm just saying that you're not a very complicated person. Take it as a compliment if you must."

" Haa?" Masaru stared in disbelief at the blond for a moment. That guy... why did he have to say it so callously? It ticked him off.

He remembered hearing somewhere, probably from his own father, that being naked symbolized opening up oneself, away from the walls people put up when they have clothes on. It symbolized being honest and a willingness to share thoughts normally kept reserved. He thought it would be an all meditative, empathetic kind of experience if it were with another guy around his age.

Instead, he felt all sort of tension building in him, yet not all of it was negative tension. Some of it was simply because it was his first time being with another guy like this. Well, he'd taken baths with his father when he was really little, and he took baths with Ikuto, but those were both completely different to him. Where was all this other tension coming from?

" Whatever, I'm out," he said as he got up from the tub.

" So soon?"

" You said it's been a long time since you've used a Japanese style bath, right? Go enjoy it while you can. I'll be back in the room."

Any longer like that and his thoughts would be going down an odd end, he sensed.

----

Agumon, Ikuto and Falcomon were already sprawled on the floor, snoozing away with the room lights still on. That wasn't surprising. It'd been a long day for them, seeing as they'd been awake since fighting Belphemon even before daybreak.

Wait... Normally, he'd share the bed with Agumon. If Agumon and the other two were on the floor, where would Tohma...

He contemplated waking up Agumon to sleep next to his usual partner. He nudged the reptile and even gave him a light kick, but the yellow guy wouldn't even grumble a response. Che.

Tohma came in (wearing a set of Masaru's nightwear) and observed the scene below him. Masaru still had a foot on Agumon.

" What are you doing?" the guest asked.

" ...Nothing. Geez, they all went to sleep before we even got here."

" That's fine. I was getting sleepy anyway. Where am I going to..." he glanced around for space on the floor.

" On the bed, with me," Masaru said straight to the point.

" ......"

Without another word, Masaru dived down like he habitually did onto his bed. " Ah...~ It's been a while." He closed his eyes. He sensed Tohma getting on the other side, but when he opened his eyes again, Tohma was facing away and already trying to get to sleep.

" Oi, turn off the lights."

" Oh..." the blond lethargically lifted his head up to look near the bed for a light switch, expecting to find them there.

For once, it was Masaru's turn to sigh. " It's fine. I got it."

He swiftly jumped off the bed and went to switch off the lights near the door. He trotted back to the bed, partially feeling his way to avoid the floor sleepers. Moonlight and streetlights seeped in through the window to guide his way.

" Good night, Masaru..." came Tohma's voice as soon as he hit the sheets again.

That was all? Wait, was he expecting more? Or was Tohma expecting something? Huh?

" ...'Night."

Well, did it matter? Peace had returned to them for now. Let bygones be bygones...

" Hey Tohma."

......

No response.

In the moonlight, Masaru could clearly see the silhouette of Tohma's back facing him. His blond hair was reflecting against the light as well, making him illuminate in a way Masaru had never seen before. He stared, mesmerized by the color effect. Stared... and stared...

Memories of ElDoradimon popped back into his head. If Tohma could do it... it wouldn't be surprising for him to do it too, right? He was just a little... curious.

He nudged himself closer until he could press his forehead onto Tohma's back.

No sudden reaction came. He could feel Tohma's deep breathing moving him ever so slightly. Tohma... he'd seriously fallen asleep already. Well, that sort of ruined the moment, he first thought.

Up that close, he could smell Tohma's scent enveloping his senses. He found it unusually... pleasant for a guy. Maybe it had something to do with his whole being-a-nobleman deal? Not that he was trying to generalize or anything, but he couldn't help but let the thought come across his mind.

He shuffled in a little closer, just like how Tohma did back then, even though they had a blanket this time. And he didn't find anything uncomfortable about it.

But he knew he should've found it uncomfortable. This guy used to piss him off so much. Even now, there were things that he hadn't cleared up with Tohma. He didn't get why Tohma did the things he did after they met ElDoradimon. He didn't get Tohma.

He didn't get himself, for that matter. He didn't get why things about Tohma were bugging him so much in the first place. He thought he could get it all out when he had punched him a big one before their final showdown against Belphemon, but something was still missing. If only he knew exactly what it was, he wouldn't be feeling this constant frustration in the back of his mind. Even if he was comfortable for the moment, it wasn't a complete comfort. Not like the old days before he had joined DATS.

Is that when it had really begun? All the way back then? No, he thought he had been fine up until recently... Just when had it really begun then? Masaru had the slightest feeling that there was a lot more to it than he was aware of at the moment. Now he was just confusing himself... Giving up for the moment, he told himself to look ahead, and as he did, he met Tohma's back right up in his face.

...Tohma was there. That was good enough for now.

----

Masaru was the first of the two to wake up. He sat up on his bed and looked around to see that Ikuto and the Digimon were out of the room already. Strange, he thought. Normally, he would've woken up from all the noise they made in the morning. Maybe he was just that dead tired. He never did have much of a knack for knowing when he was exhausted, and during times like that, it was almost impossible for anything to wake him up.

He heard a slight mumble, then saw two sapphire eyes open and turn towards him. " ...Masaru?" the blond said as if just noticing he had woken up in an unfamiliar room.

Masaru almost felt chills down his spine. It was odd hearing Tohma sound so... unaware. " O... Oh. Mornin'."

" ...Morning." Tohma took his gaze off and closed his eyes again, seeming to go back to sleep.

" You still tired?"

" Not really. I slept well," Tohma commented. " But..."

" Mm?"

" I was too sleepy last night. Come back down here."

" Eh?" Masaru wasn't sure he understood what Tohma was talking about.

Before he could react, Tohma brought an arm around him and pushed him back down on the bed. Tohma let go of Masaru and laid back to face the ceiling.

" I've always wanted to do this."

After some fussing from being pushed down, Masaru paused as he lifted himself back up with his elbows. " Do what?" Masaru said skeptically.

" Have a sleepover."

" Oh." He blinked. " That's it?"

" What do you mean, 'That's it?'"

" Uh... so wait, you've never had a sleepover before?"

" No..."

Masaru felt like he should've known. He scratched his head. " Well, then that just means even you've got stuff to learn still, yeah? Now that Kurata's gone, it's time to go back to learning the joys of life... kind of thing~"

" I'm looking forward to teaming up with you again."

That caught Masaru's attention. Tohma looked at him straight in the eyes. There was an earnest flare of anticipation within that gaze. Masaru found himself smiling. For a moment, he could forget about all of the odd occurrences and look forward to the daily fights in the streets and eating his mother's good cooking and generally enjoying his Yokohama lifestyle... with even tighter bonds among his comrades. " Yeah. Me too."

" Good to hear. The others are probably waiting for us to come down." Tohma rolled to his side and got up from the bed. " I ought to invite you for a sleepover at my place next time. What do you eat for breakfast here?"

" Tamagoyaki."

Tohma stared at Masaru for a moment, as if to say something insulting in his typical manner, but he soon gave up and went to change out of Masaru's pajamas right in the middle of the room.

There he went again, Masaru noticed. There was something on Tohma's mind and he wasn't telling him...

" Hey Tohma."

" Hmm?"

" I've got something to ask you. On ElDora-"

" ANIKIIIIIII ARE YOU UP YET?! Breakfast is ready! If you aren't up yet, I'm gonna eat your share!"

Just then, Agumon nearly busted the door open, right in the midst of Tohma changing with nothing but his briefs on. The blond gave a little jump at the sudden interruption as the yellow reptile sauntered in.

" Hey, is that the way to treat your Aniki?! Oi, keep the door closed, Agumon!" Masaru yelled.

" Huh? What for?"

" Masaru-niichan! Aren't you guys up yet? What's keeping you?"

" Aah, Chika! Don't come in he-"

" Aahhh!"

----

They had a day off as a break before recommencing DATS activities. Ikuto's parents had come to pick up their son, so the boy from the Digital World wasn't with them, but they all knew they would meet from time to time.

And Masaru went to school for the first time in what felt like ages to him. He sensed that it would be a really warm day, so he rode his bike to catch some cool air on the way. The days were getting pretty hot anyway, so he'd figure he'd go back to his bike-riding habit since after school, it would help him get to Tohma's mansion and back home faster.

His classmates met him with their usual mixed reactions; most just went on their own business since they didn't want to have anything to do with Japan's biggest fighter, while his buddies struck up cheerful greetings and started joking with him once again, just like old times. He was honestly glad to see them.

He was never interested in the classes, of course... his teachers would admonish him for not paying attention and they would emphasize the fact that he was behind the rest of the class, but he never cared. For the moment, he was just enjoying the nostalgia, because everything else around him was changing...

He pedaled the bike towards Tohma's mansion after school for their recommencement meeting. Now that he thought of it, it was his first time riding his bike towards the nobleman's area. There was a ridiculously steep upwards slope on the way, very near the mansion gates, and he almost had to get off his bike to walk up it, but he mustered up his manly will and biked through it to the top. And he laughed victoriously to himself for it. At least it'd be something to look forward to going the other way. He continued on to the Norstein mansion gates and was allowed inside after identifying himself at the intercom.

It'd be something he'd need to get used to, having to identify himself at the intercom every time. With the old DATS building, he could just identify himself with his thumbprint for access. Now it was one of the blacksuit male Norstein attendants who let him in. He knew it was all part of stepping up the security, but it still felt a little awkward.

Everything had happened so quickly, they hardly had been given time to see how far they had come until now. As far as Masaru was concerned, he was just happy things could go back to how they were before Kurata... so he kept telling himself. In fact, while chatting with the old DATS girls upon arriving at the Norstein mansion, they had all come to the consensus of using terms like "pre-Kurata" "Kurata-DATS war" "post-Kurata" and such for the future. It was an odd feeling for them.

" We've just made history, haven't we," Shirakawa said with a mix of anticipation and concern.

" There's still much left to be made!" a new voice roared in from the hallway outside.

BanchouLeomon stepped in through the grand doors which had been left open. He took a quick glance around, surveying the temporary facilities. The ballroom had been converted to the main headquarters, so while there were strange massive machines set in the wide space, the chandeliers, ornate decorations and huge balcony windows gave the place a very different atmosphere. Not that BanchouLeomon knew it felt different to the others.

" Now that the human world is fully aware of the Digital World's existence, things could get very ugly if not handled cautiously from here on in. Don't loosen up just because Kurata's not around to make things worse. There could be many more like him in the future."

" No way am I gonna let that happen," Masaru growled. " I've had enough of guys like him. I'll pummel every last one of them off my turf."

" Yeah! You get 'em, Aniki! Say, how big's your turf? Your turf's called Japan or something, right?"

" Yep! Hey awesome, you remembered!"

" Yeah, 'cause it's Aniki! No one beats Aniki on his turf!"

" Yeah!!"

A small, collective sigh from the girls resonated in the room.

" You haven't changed at all..." Yoshino muttered.

" Hey, wait. Are you joining DATS or something, BanchouLeomon?" Masaru asked, looking up at the lion man with some confusion.

" I'll stick around... to a certain degree."

" What's that supposed to mean?" Yoshino said, lifting an eyebrow.

" That is, I'll be doing as I selfishly please, as usual," the banchou replied in light humor.

Tohma entered at that moment, followed by... Captain Satsuma and Kudamon. Satsuma was wearing his DATS uniform like nothing had ever changed. The rest of the DATS team stared in awe.

" Captain Satsuma! You really are alive!" Masaru was the first to exclaim.

" Of course. Did you really think Kudamon and I would get taken down? We've got a lot of work to do. There's no time to celebrate now that we've got the organization set back up."

Just as ever, their Captain left no room for joking around or arguing. The others couldn't help but silently revel in the nostalgia of his presence. That is, except for BanchouLeomon, who looked mildly... surprised?

" So you're their... Captain, I take it?" BanchouLeomon asked.

" Yes, and you are...?"

" BanchouLeomon."

" He showed us how to bring out the Burst Digivice's power," Masaru added.

" Hmm. So you've all obtained the power of the Ultimate." Satsuma stated objectively.

" Yoshino, Masaru, Ikuto and I have at least. Masaru has even reached the Burst Mode," Tohma said.

" Burst Mode?" Kudamon asked. " Even I've not heard of that."

" Don't know if you'll get an opportunity to ever see it," Masaru said with a shrug. " Unless another guy as powerful as Belphemon comes along."

" What, are you TRYING to jinx it?" Yoshino lashed out. " Once is enough!"

" Hmm, maybe I am," Masaru replied with a distinct carefreeness in his tone. But he quickly switched to a firmer tone. " Things'll get pretty boring if all the other challenges aren't as challenging."

" Not all challenges come in the form of stronger opponents, Masaru," Tohma said as he came to stand between Masaru and Yoshino.

" Dude, I know."

" As I thought you would."

" Then why bother mentioning it?"

" ......Captain Satsuma, I know you just got back, but if you'd have the honors of starting us off..."

" Hey, did you even hear me?"

" Masaru." The strain in Satsuma's voice was enough to quiet him up.

Captain Satsuma cleared his throat with a cough, then realigned his standing position to face everyone in the room.

" You've come such a long way since the last time I saw you all. Especially you three, who have obtained the power of the Ultimate. You have a lot to be proud of." He and Kudamon shared their gaze on Masaru, Tohma and Yoshino.

" In the past, priority of our activities remained in maintaining confidentiality, and thus close-knit cooperation amongst our members was a necessity. Now that the general public knows about our activities, our method of operations will have to change drastically to fit the new demand. Our first step in doing this involves reaching out to that general public to assure every person out there that our organization means to secure their safety."

" You may be wondering exactly how involved DATS will be for this step. As you already know, the Ministry has taken up responsibility for this, but even they have their limits on how much they can convince the public on their own. As such, we have the duty to uphold our part of the involvement."

Masaru was already kind of dazing out at the talk. As much as he was excited to be at his first day back at DATS, he still didn't feel much towards general motivational speeches. He looked at Agumon, who looked just about as attention-deficient as Masaru himself was. The yellow guy's large eyes seemed glazed over.

" The general public will not be convinced simply by the Ministry's words. They will want to see exactly what is being done on the technical side, the people directly handling the cases, ecetera. That would be us."

" And here is where things will change, at least for the time being. The Ministry has suggested that we run programs on various media that offer insight to our organization. There will be a public website, and our other members will handle most of the other mediums. The biggest and most important one however, would be a special television program to run weekly for several months. And that's where we come in."

" Seeing how far the three of you have come, it's about time you all took your own steps as individuals. Therefore, the three of you will all be assigned different shifts, and you will all be participating in the television program."

...Wait, this was just a motivational speech, right?

Things were... going to be back to normal, weren't they?

" I'll give you one warning. They'll break you if you're not aware of yourself. Always keep your goals in mind."

" Wait, are you saying we won't be fighting together anymore?"

" Just right when we really started getting along as a team..."

They all stared at the freshly-returned Captain. Was this really him?

Yet all he did was stand tall as he always did and speak in loud volumes for the rest of the room to hear him. " Henceforth, Digital Accident Tactics Squad will re-commence!"

----  
Author blab

Basically, I just took away Kurata's toys so he had no buttons to press in his defeat. And then this happened.


	3. Chapter 3

" Argh! I don't know if I'm supposed to be mad at Satsuma or someone else for this, but ARGH!" Masaru punched the wall like no one's business, except that it was one of the bathrooms in the Norstein mansion. And Tohma was there, changing into his uniform. The oversized bathrooms on the ground floor had been converted into pseudo-locker rooms, with places for the DATS members to place their belongings as they changed into their uniforms. They were already beginning their shift schedules, so while Masaru was allowed to stay in his casual clothes, Tohma was to be on duty.

" It upsets me too, Masaru, but we'll have to deal with it. It IS our responsibility, after all."

" You're accepting this way too easily." Masaru crossed his arms as he spoke to the blond, who had finished changing.

" Well, what do you expect me to do about it?"

" I dunno, you could've reasoned with the old man! Reasoning's what you're good at, isn't it? I mean, it's not like he was around to see all that we went through to defeat Kurata," Masaru said with disappointment. " Not that I don't mind doing things solo, but we were all pumped to come back as a TEAM, right? Now it's like he's trying to separate us all. Captain Satsuma, he... didn't even know about ElDoradimon."

Indeed, Satsuma didn't know about what had happened with ElDoradimon... Masaru had even asked their Captain directly, and he had replied that he had been communicating with a different group of Digimon instead, although he refused to elaborate on that group of Digimon. Their Captain had been unaware that ElDoradimon had played such a huge role in Kurata's plans. Unaware of its significance, unaware of what had happened inside it.

Heck, even Masaru wasn't sure what had happened inside it. That's why he wanted to ask the one who was directly involved and clear things up.

Instead of continuing the conversation, Tohma started heading out of the bathroom.

" Wait, Tohma!"

The said boy in blue uniform paused at the door but didn't turn back.

" I need to be on duty now. Ask me later."

Masaru was about to speak again, but not a moment later, the last of Tohma slipped from his view.

Che. He left just right when he had more to say.

" Idiot. When's later?"

There was one short conversation Masaru had with the filming crew around the time when they first met...

" So what exactly are you guys looking to film for this TV program?" He had asked them.

Most of the crewmembers seemed to be people in their mid-20s like Kurosaki and Shirakawa. They'd already grown accustomed to being around the other DATS Digimon and had thus become friends with Agumon quite easily as well. A man wearing his baseball cap backwards had answered him. " Eh... action stuff. You know, getting rid of whatever's here to attack us and protecting people. People like seeing that kind of stuff."

Masaru had figured. " What about our fight against Belphemon?"

" Belphemon? You mean that big one that got people's attention in the first place? There's only like... crappy cell phone videos of it from far away and you can't really see what's going on in them. Either it'd be too dark or everything would be on fire and you couldn't see much either way. Did anybody here actually get to see that personally?"

" Nope, not me..."

" Not here either."

" Che, you all missed out on my glorious moment then," Masaru had said with an obvious pout. " I guess you'll just have to feast your eyes when the next battle shows up on my turf! After all, I'm Japan's toughest fighter, Daimon Masaru-sama!"

" You go, Aniki!"

The other crewmembers had just given him weird looks or shrugged at him as he pulled one of his manliest poses.

" Just you guys wait. Nobody beats me in a man-to-man fight!"

After all that boasting he'd done, having things come to this wasn't what he had in mind...

He was literally hounded by the recording crew for the TV program at every second of his shift. He tried to start off on friendly terms with them, but he soon grew completely fed up with their presence. They simply would never let him have a moment of privacy during his shifts. One of the crewmembers would even wait outside the bathroom whenever he went. They weren't making any video footage in the bathroom (thank god), but it was still unnerving as heck.

On top of that, all week, his only work was... paperwork and computer work. Not a single Digimon appeared during his shift. It just so happened to be that any of the Digimon appearances that week were all during Yoshino's late night shift, and since there were the most amount of employees and Satsuma around during the daytime, Tohma got to do all the crossing between the Digital World and real world. That left Masaru with all the boring work... It was completely unfair!

He was constantly tempted to take out his anger on the crewmembers, but then he'd remember what Satsuma had told them about staying aware of themselves and their goals, and he'd end up grumbling some gibberish to no one in particular instead. Agumon had resorted to making small chat with the crew most of the time to relieve his boredom.

Masaru kept telling himself that it was just a bad, transitional week and things weren't always going to be like this anyway. Eventually, he wouldn't have to have these random people staring at him all the time, and he could go back to hanging out with the other DATS members. Indeed, he was realizing how much he missed the others after being stuck in such a situation for the whole week immediately following such an eventful past. It always had to be one end of the spectrum or another for him, and right now, he was in the nasty end of it.

Very, very nasty. And he wanted out. The others seemed to have something going for them, but Masaru felt like he was... stuck. Stuck in between the two eventful shifts. A filler. He knew his shift was shorter than the others because of school, but he still wanted to do something more than PAPERWORK after the long days at school.

And seeing Tohma for those few seconds right before his shift began never helped...

The crewmembers were always surrounding them, so he could never get a private moment with Tohma at DATS. And he had school during the daytime, so he couldn't see Tohma during his shift at DATS. Then again, even if he were to visit Tohma on the weekends when he didn't have school, the crewmembers were still there...

He was quite fed up after just one week.

" Why the heck do they have to be with us ALL THE TIME? Can't they give us a break for once?" Masaru ranted openly to Yoshino when she arrived for her shift. He didn't even care that the crewmembers were still watching them. None of them spoke up against him anyway.

Yoshino shrugged. " They record us practically all day, but they'll only need one hour of material per episode. It's pretty ridiculous if you ask me, but I can manage if it's only for three months. There aren't too many people around during the night shift anyway, so I don't mind the extra company."

" Well, I can't manage!" Masaru growled in frustration. " There are times when a man needs time to himself!"

" You know, you're not really even required to be at your shift every time, Masaru. You're not even at the legal working age."

" I know! But it's not about the job for me." Masaru said as the words of his comrades ran through his mind again. " It's about my duty as a man. Kurata did a lot of nasty things and now a lot of people are nervous about this whole Digimon thing, so I gotta do my part to let 'em know that it's not like that."

Yoshino grinned. " I agree with you, Masaru. What we're doing here is more reason to do it than anything else. Although I DO really appreciate the salary increase I got post-Kurata. Now I can finally save up for those things on my wishlist. Hmm hmm~"

Masaru gave Yoshino an odd stare while she lightly hummed to herself.

Three months without a moment of privacy at DATS... It sounded more like a curse to him than anything else now. When Satsuma had first announced the schedule, he hadn't thought about it as anything more than a little annoyance that he wouldn't get to fight with the others after everything they'd been through. But this lack of privacy was really grating on him.

A full week without fights, especially after a fight like the one with Belphemon, was really weighing down on him.

Not only that, but he was never able to get a chance to ask Tohma about that subject...

With the way things were going, he wouldn't be surprised if the next step would cause him to snap...

It happened at the end of the third week, which had been similar to the previous weeks, although it was worse with the stress piling up on him.

The day started off like any other weekday during those three weeks. He'd get up, eat breakfast, and go to school with Agumon in his Digivice as he rode on his bike. He'd sleep through half of his classes or whenever the teachers didn't catch him, head back home for a little break and early dinner, and then head off to DATS.

On the normal cycle, he'd just do paperwork or sit around with nothing fun to do. And at the end of the day, he'd go home, eat a light snack, shower up, maybe have some fun with Agumon and then head straight off to sleep.

Except today, he had a major school cleaning after classes. Their summer was coming up, and thus the staff wanted the school to get a good spring cleaning before it would be mostly empty for the break. He was with some of his old buddies, to top it off. He honestly hadn't gotten an opportunity to hang around with them ever since he got back, so he was rather grateful for the opportunity.

He and another buddy were mopping the floor, while one more was cleaning the whiteboards and overhead projector equipment. They had done small talk to catch up, and Masaru showed off some of his elite and manly mopping tricks that he'd come up with while he was on a certain other mission.

" Hey, you guys, they're starting that TV program about that DATS organization tonight," one of his buddies said afterwards. " I can't wait to see it!"

Masaru's grip on his mop jerked. ...Tonight? " Huh, you're actually interested in that stuff?"

" Hell yeah! It's the whole talk of the town lately. Especially after what happened with that Belphemon guy, everyone wants to know what the heck's happening. It's like... Godzilla for REAL, you know. You don't just ignore that kind of stuff, Masaru."

" Well, he HAS been busy with something, right Masaru? That's why you haven't hung out with us in so long. And before that, you had some kind of long-term leave, didn't you? What was that all about?"

" Now that I think about it, you came back right after the Belphemon incident. Were you even around for that, man? Weren't you out of town?"

Masaru found himself unable to find an answer for a moment. How could he, considering that they'd be seeing him on TV that night... His mind was just full of " Ugh, ugh ugh ugh" upon hearing his buddies. He was already prepared for DATS to become a "public highlight" but he definitely was not interested in people seeing him do paperwork on worldwide television. Naturally, he'd been hoping for a good fight to come his way so he could call out to challenge the rest of the world or some ambitious thing like that.

Of course, no one had been around to record the Belphemon fight. That would've given him some glory at least. Ugh.

He pulled a nasty looking face for himself and took out his mood on the mop. " You'll find out soon enough. How about we change the subject?"

" Oh right!" said the first buddy. " I spotted you heading over to that big mansion in town the other day. Is that where you've got business, Masaru?"

Another heavy "ugh" sunk into him and his arms sunk as well, lowering the mop.

The other buddy spoke up. " What, THAT mansion? I could've sworn you were going to some special place to go for fights or something..."

" Yeah, THAT mansion. Those guys have gotta be freakin' rich. I saw you... It happened over a week ago... Yeah, a Friday like today, so I kind of forgot until now. So what's the deal, Masaru?"

" Not your business."

" Oh, come on man. Aren't we your buddies? You can at least tell us!"

To be honest, he was just buying time to think about how to answer. He didn't want to lie to them. " Fine, fine. I... do have business there. With the guy who lives there."

" Huh? You fight rich guys now?"

" He's not just a rich guy," Masaru growled, " He's an arrogant nobleman who's obsessed with strategies and perfection and some other things that I don't get. He's also some freak superman who doesn't need to go to school anymore because he's got a doctor's degree even though he's about the same age as me. On top of all that, he's so oblivious to the weirdest things and just plain out spaces out sometimes when I'm trying to talk to him. Geez, why does someone like him..."

" Whoa dude... how'd you even meet the guy? Looks like you spent a lot of time with him if you know him that well..."

" Eh? H-How I met him doesn't matter..."

Spent a lot of time with him...? All he could think of lately was how much he HADN'T gotten to spend time with him. N-Not that he was so desperate to spend time with that weirdo...

" That's some odd guy to be getting involved with..."

Ah, crap, he thought to himself. What was he rambling on about? These were just the guys he talked random shit to and relieved his boredom with. It didn't matter to them. TOHMA was the one he needed to be dealing with. And no one else needed to be involved.

His grip on the mop as he dragged it around tightened audibly. " What's it to you? Like I said, I've got business with him, so stay off."

The other two looked at him as if they'd been offended, causing Masaru to feel a little guilty. They probably didn't mean any ill, yet he was still snapping at them.

" Sorry guys, it's just... I'll tell you some other time."

Right. The program was going to air that evening during his shift. After that, his buddies would probably look at him differently. He knew they would, although now that the time had come, he was really starting to realize that he wasn't so content with the way things were going. Not just with DATS, but with himself, and with Tohma...

No doubt the filming crew would be watching the program right in the main headquarters while he did paperwork. And he was right.

It was the dead middle of his shift, and he was once again tapping and clicking away slowly at the computer to organize reports. There were five crewmembers in the main headquarters with him, all chatting amongst themselves and with Agumon, as they had fallen into a habit of doing, since it wasn't like Masaru was doing anything interesting to record anyway. They were rather enjoying themselves with feeding Agumon random treats they picked up from who knows where. Masaru cursed under his breath.

" Aniki, you've gotta try this stuff! This guy's cousin's friend's brother or something or other makes these Taiyaki things and they're sooooo good! And then this guy's from America and he brought some stuff called puppy chow, but it doesn't taste like dog food..."

" Later Agumon, I'm in the middle of something..."

Meanwhile, other noises erupted from the background.

" No way, he did that? I can't believe him..."

" Yeah, he even had the nerve to show her the picture! Just think of that!"

" ...and so Miyako wouldn't stop talking! She'd just keep going on and on, no matter what we'd try to do. I didn't know what else to do!"

And all the blabbing around him wasn't helping him finish his task. ' Gotta stay aware of yourself, aware of yourself...'

" Oh hey, is it 8 yet? The program should be starting now!"

" Quick, put it on the big screen!"

Ah, there it was. Their weeks of separation were getting broadcasted on television now... came Masaru's first thought. Naturally, since no one had been around to record the actual fight against Belphemon, all the people would ever know about it was what the media reported. What the people would be seeing in the program would be their first up-close impression of DATS.

He paid about half of his attention as he watched. Naturally, Yoshino had the most amount of airing time with her Digimon encounters. In fact, that was probably 80% of the content. And yes, they did show Masaru doing his paperwork. He wanted to laugh at how disgruntled he looked on television, but he couldn't even bring himself to do so, and before he could reconsider, the scene had already moved onto one with Tohma in it. He was making adjustments to the Digital Gate for a Dive, but the program ended there as a slight cliffhanger, making the audience wait for the next episode if they wanted to see what the Digital World was like. That is, the next episode that wouldn't air for another two weeks.

The crew chattered about the program, which Masaru ignored to finish up more paperwork, until the conversation subject changed...

" Hey, I heard you got a chance to talk to Tohma alone today. How was it, girl?"

" Oh geez! That's so embarrassing to ask...!"

" Haha, she's blushing. Did something good happen?"

" What, what? Something good? That's dangerous, girl. He's only fourteen, you know!"

" Are you serious? B-But... doesn't he have a PhD? Even though he's a genius, I thought he'd be at least 20..."

" You seriously thought he was that old?"

" Well, doesn't he act like it?"

" Yeah, but... wow, that just makes things so much more interesting. Wow, Tohma!"

" Hey, hey, that just means he's underage, girl..."

" Still..."

Masaru could almost feel a headache come in. Gotta stay aware of yourself...

" Hey, you know we're not allowed to talk about the DATS members like that while we're on duty..."

" It's not like we're recording now anyway. Why not talk about it?"

" Yeah, I wanna know! So how was it?"

" Well, he... I asked him what he thought of DATS as it is now compared to how it used to be."

" Ohh. Profound."

" And what'd he say?"

" He started off by saying that he was progressing with a lot of his research. I wanted to ask him about his research afterwards, but when he continued his answer..."

" What? What'd he say?"

" I dunno, I wasn't quite sure what he was talking about, to be honest. Maybe it was a bunch of technical mumble jumble that I didn't get, but the whole time, he kept talking. And he looked so... so..."

" So...?"

" ...empty? I think is what I'm trying to say. Like a robot. No, not even like that. I mean, I was there for his first recording session, and back then he seemed like a completely different person. There was something... exhilarating about him, like he'd just come back from the best vacation trip in his life."

" Well, he was in the Digital World for quite some time, wasn't he? Wasn't it because of that then?"

" But he still goes to the Digital World sometimes during his shifts. Even then... he slowly started losing that animated feeling, I think. I wonder why..."

" Maybe it's because there's no one to go with him besides his Digimon? Then maybe he's lonely? You should've used that chance to offer to go with him, girl!"

Masaru really didn't want to be paying attention, yet he found that he couldn't ignore the conversation. He spoke up from his far end. " Hey wait. You guys don't go with him to the Digital World?"

" Err, not yet at least. Tohma says the gate isn't stable enough to transport additional people. He does his own recordings of the Digital World for us to use while he's there."

And here he thought the crewmembers had to be with them constantly because of some kind of security or government spying reason beyond his intellect. Maybe that wasn't the case?

But Tohma... he must've been lying about the Digital gate. Even Masaru knew that Tohma's system for the gate could easily send multiple people in, even the temporary one in the ballroom they were in. He had a faint idea of why Tohma would be hiding that fact from the crewmembers though. Okay, maybe not just faint, but a CLEAR idea.

Hearing the crewmembers talk about Tohma really made him want to talk to him more than ever. The question he wanted to ask had been plaguing him more as time went on, and the longer he had to put it off, the worse it made him feel when he would remember it again.

" Oh right! Well, it's not like you've had a chance to hang around with him for a while, but I'm sure you still remember. Was Tohma really like that before?"

" W-Wha?" Masaru turned back towards them when he realized they were talking to him.

" Exhilarated. Animated."

" Well, that's got a lot of meanings... be more specific, will ya?"

" Hm..." the girl who had been talking about Tohma thought for a long time. " Well, he just seemed... really happy about something all the time back then. But it wasn't like he was happy about the present, but something that had happened a while back. Know what I mean? Like a delayed reaction, I guess."

" Wow, that's REALLY profound there, girl. How do you sense that much?"

" It's because that feeling never came back the same, so it must've been something from the past. So back to the question... did you notice that too, Masaru?"

" ..." Masaru wouldn't answer. He COULDN'T answer because he honestly hadn't thought about anything of the sort that the girl was talking about. All he could think of when it came to Tohma was his behavior towards him...

" Huh? Masaru, are you okay?"

" That... damn Tohma."

" Huh?"

A fire started burning up in him that refused to settle down.

Another guy stepped into the conversation. " Now that I think about it, he lives right in this mansion, doesn't he? We're always in this huge room, so it never seems like this is part of a mansion, but he's probably got some private part of the floor on the other side, doesn't he?"

" Yeah, those noblemen are sure out of this world..."

Masaru took one good look at his surroundings. All of the crewmembers were sitting back on comfort chairs, fully relaxed, with Agumon in his own seat. And they were all farther away from the door than Masaru.

He'd finished his current task, and he had more, but did he really care?

" You guys don't need to follow me everywhere I go, right? ...I'm gonna take a little break and visit."

" What?"

Before the others could say anything else, he had zipped out of the ballroom. Even Agumon hadn't seen it coming.

He ran as fast as he could so that the others wouldn't catch him if they were going to try. Of course, he wouldn't mind brawling with them for his freedom, but only if they were really asking for it. The mansion was huge though... and while he knew how to get to the inner ballroom from the main entrance, he didn't know his way around the rest of the building at all.

Still, he was going to find Tohma tonight.

His best guess was that the bedrooms were all on a higher floor, so first he had to find stairs to go up. He eventually found a set of stairs that started off parallel to the hallway, but changed to perpendicular halfway as he met up with the wall of the building. He soared up them. At the second floor, he had to take a long look to fully realize that Tohma was standing right there in the hallway. In a bathrobe. Having just finished a shower, apparently.

" Masaru?"

Muffled noises erupted from the floor below.

" Is he over here?"

" I don't see him!"

" Do you think he went upstairs? Are we even allowed up there?"

" I don't see why not..."

Masaru gave Tohma an uneasy look that clearly said "Don't let them find me!" which Tohma snerked at for deciphering so easily.

" This way," Tohma said, his wet hair glistening as he turned around and headed towards one of the rooms. Masaru followed without hesitation.

They entered the room without turning on the lights, and Tohma pulled out his DATS communication device as he closed the door behind them.

" Butler, can you handle the intruders in the hallway? I'm about to prepare for bed."

" At once, sir," came the reply barely moments later.

So Tohma even customized his own communication device to handle household matters... Masaru wasn't sure whether to be in awe or to laugh at the silliness of it, but he was too grateful for the butler and Tohma to do either.

The two didn't peep a word as they heard the clamor of footsteps approach their doors. A thin amount of moonlight seeped through between the high-rise curtains at the opposite end of the huge room. Other than Tohma's silhouette, he couldn't see anything else in the room.

" Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but is there a reason for you to be here during these hours?"

" Um, we're just looking for someone..."

" I'm sorry, but the only persons who are on this floor right now are Master Tohma and his attendants. Please leave."

" Mm, but I couldn't sworn I saw..."

" Please leave. Master Tohma is not to be disturbed during his resting hours."

" ...Fine, I got it! Sorry for intruding."

Tohma and Masaru stood still next to the door in the darkness. Masaru let himself breathe a sigh of relief as the sound of the footsteps dimmed away.

" So what's this all about?" Tohma asked as he turned on the lights.

It was unmistakably his bedroom. His larger-than-king-sized bed, on top of a gigantic plush carpet, stood against the lower middle of one wall, while another wall was covered in tall bookshelves. Another wall had open closets of his wardrobe... Actually, it was those closets that gave it away the most.

" I'm not going back down there tonight."

Tohma pulled a slightly distressed expression. " What about Agumon? Didn't you leave him down there too?"

" Mm... Those guys are spoiling him anyway. He won't mind... He might as well go home already. It's not like any Digimon are ever going to show up on my shift. And I'm sick of paperwork."

" I can ask the butler to send him back home for you."

" Ah? What about those crew guys then?"

" Well, you're not going back downstairs anyway, are you? They can handle themselves."

Masaru stared for a moment. Tohma... wasn't going to berate him for skipping out on work or anything?

" What are you looking at me like that for?" Tohma said lightly. " If a Digimon really were to show up, we can be contacted on our communication devices like we always used to. We don't need Tamers in the main headquarters 24/7. The main reason why we've been split into different shifts in the first place is to satisfy the producer's odd habits in creating this program, you know. Captain Satsuma did claim it was to make us 'step out as individuals,' but he was just dampening the real reason behind it."

Masaru felt like he had a bombshell hit him. " For something like THAT? What? I don't... get it... ARGH!" He clenched both of his fists in mid-air, then got additionally frustrated when he realized Tohma's comments about the communication devices were completely true. Why hadn't he thought of that before? Come to think of it, his had been in his belt pack ever since they re-established DATS... no, longer than that. He checked his belt pack to see if it was still in there, and lo and behold, it was. He never was much for machines, or even remembering that he had them.

" You hadn't even realized that, had you," Tohma said. " Hmph."

Masaru wanted to sock him a good one, but he stopped as he saw that Tohma, who had crossed his arms and went to look towards the curtains was... smiling. And it wasn't a mocking or forced kind of smile at all. It was just a natural, and somehow nostalgic smile.

That girl in the filming crew had said he had been empty or something lately. In other words, void of emotion.

But this Tohma...

" You don't have school tomorrow, right? Do you want to stay here for the night? I said I'd invite you to sleep over next time, didn't I?"

" Tonight? Uh..." Shoot. The reason why Masaru was there at all... If he asked right now, would Tohma still be saying that? " Dude, that's not why I came up here."

" Hmm? But I'm asking you anyway." Tohma gave him a slightly puzzled look.

" Sure, fine then. But first, there's something I've gotta ask you."

His solid stare said it all. Tohma stared back for a while in blank silence.

" Ask me after you shower and change."

" ...Haa?"

" We'll talk all you want after that. Or do you intend to hang around here in the DATS uniform?"

Tohma cocked his chin a little to indicate Masaru's attire. Masaru frowned.

" Oh... fine."

" The shower room's down the hallway. The butler will bring you a change of clothes when you're done."

" Sure..."

Tohma swiftly guided him out of the doors and closed them behind him. From there, the butler approached him and led him to the shower room. Within the same minute, he had stepped into the shower room and was taking his clothes off to shower.

Was it just his imagination or had Tohma timed everything a little too conveniently just now? Well, no matter, he'd just ask after he showered.

Even so, showering in the Norstein mansion... He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but the shower room he was using seemed rather... modest? It felt almost the same as the public showers in their old DATS HQ building. Well, except it was a fully enclosed space. And it smelled nice...

He caught himself in the middle of dazing out and chastised himself for it. ' Ugh, that tonma. I'm DEFINITELY going to hear everything out of him tonight. I swear my fists on it.'

As resolve fired up within him, he quickly forgot about his location and ended up only thinking about the upcoming "confrontation" with Tohma. Scrubbing his hair furiously in determination, he finished up his shower and stepped out without a second thought, then blinked when he saw all the open space surrounding him. For a moment, he thought he really had been back in the DATS HQ shower stalls, so he had expected to see the bench outside with his towel on it. But there was no such object.

Instead, the butler was there. The wet-haired brunet almost flipped back when he saw the tall man. The butler had kept so quiet that he hadn't even sensed his presence. He wanted to say something to the butler, but he ended up remaining quiet as a white bathrobe was handed to him. As he wrapped it around himself, he noticed the Norstein emblem embroidered on the backside.

" I will be going out to take Agumon back to the Daimon residence now. If you need assistance while I am gone, you may ask one of the maids," the butler stated. He pointed to the maid on the opposite end of the hallway who looked like she was ready to go to sleep herself, dressed in nightwear and yawning. " They'll be sleeping in that room over there, but they will not hesitate to come to your aid if necessary."

The butler bowed. " Tohma is waiting for you back in his room. If you'll excuse me now."

As the butler took his own way, Masaru went back to Tohma's room and helped himself inside.

" Oh, Masaru. Was the shower okay?" Masaru walked in to see Tohma get up from his position, sitting in front of his dresser's mirror. His Digivice was flashing on the dresser, indicating that Gaomon had just entered and was likely heading off to sleep inside it.

" Yeah..."

" Come sit down over here. I'll blow-dry your hair for you."

" Haa? Don't bother, I can do that myself..."

Tohma looked at him with chagrin. " This is something I want to personally do. Humor me, will you? Just take the moment to relax. I'm your host for tonight, after all."

Masaru shrugged, closing his eyes in mild defeat. " Fine, fine. I'll humor you. Don't try pulling anything funny on me or I'll pummel you out of the building, got it?"

" Rest assured that I won't."

He knew he couldn't rest completely assured, but he did want to get his hair dried first so they could get down to "business." He sat down in front of the mirror and watched Tohma pull out a hair drier and brush.

" You knows, guys don't usually do this kind of thing during their sleepovers," Masaru said with a little sigh.

" Guys don't usually have hair like yours either," Tohma countered with a little smirk.

" Hmph. Just get started already."

There was a click and the loud whirring of the hairdryer echoed throughout the giant bedroom. Naturally, that loud whirring kept them from continuing their conversation. Masaru was left to just sit still as Tohma tended to his wet hair.

Tohma's hairdryer was a powerful one, easily sending Masaru's hair almost 180 degrees opposite of whatever direction. In the midst of the blow-drying, Tohma brushed Masaru's hair with the brush in his other hand... with paced and deliberate strokes. Not too slowly or too lightly, but just enough to act as a massage.

It was definitely a different feeling when someone else was brushing his hair, and he could remember the times when his mother would brush his hair when he was younger, and she'd always be pretty rough on him. It was always a matter of disciplining him to take better care of his hair and all that motherly business. Now that he thought about it, his mother was the only other person who had ever handled his hair. Guys would try to grab his ponytail in fights, but he made sure it never happened... His peers at school wouldn't even dare try to get near his hair.

But Tohma wasn't one of those random school people. He wasn't his mother or those other street fighters either. He wasn't even like his school buddies even though they were around the same age... Tohma was just Tohma. On the other hand, while he wasn't soft on him either, Tohma was very relaxing in his actions as he handled the brunet's hair. Masaru had to admit, it felt quite comfortable.

Just like his warmth...

Masaru shook his head. Tohma gave him a curious look, but he continued silently.

When Masaru's hair started to feel dry, Tohma set the hairdryer to its low setting and raised his voice slightly so Masaru could hear him over the buzz. " So what DO you usually do on a sleepover? Besides board games, since all I have here is chess and I doubt you're interested in that."

A brief thought of how Tohma would kick his ass in chess passed through Masaru's mind before he coughed and moved on. " Hmm... Well, before Ikuto came, it'd been a long time since I went to a sleepover. I mean, I must've been like seven years old or something. Back then, we'd just play games all night that my friends had at their place, I guess."

A few more moments passed and Tohma turned off the hairdryer, continuing to brush Masaru's hair.

" Once I started junior high school, I guess I stopped having them... I've stayed at friends' places pretty late just talking about random stuff, but I'd still go home afterwards."

" Talking about random stuff, eh."

" Yeah. But it's not the same here. I mean, a lot of the stuff I talk about with them is pretty meaningless and it's just for the laughs." Masaru said softly in the silence. " It's different with us."

At least during moments like this, Masaru felt like he connected with the blond more than his classmates. True, Tohma was different from all of his classmates, despite being the same age as all of them. It was just like he had ranted to them; he was the biggest strategy-obsessed perfectionist he'd ever met, like some superman. Plus a nobleman who got a lot of attention either from his status or his looks. Probably both. Or at least the latter if it were a complete stranger in Japan.

Erk... but there was way more to it than that! The two of them had experienced so much together ever since entering DATS. They had witnessed the cause of human emotions attracting Digimon into the real world and protected people through a great deal of cases. They had spent nights together in the Digital World and traveled through it far and wide. They had saved both worlds from destructive tyranny. They had survived through unfortunate deaths of their comrades and betrayal in order to protect those they held dear...

" It's because we're both working at DATS and we've got the Digimon to look after," said Tohma.

...Huh? No? No wait, yes, that was true too, but... that wasn't where Masaru's line of thought had been going.

" Looking after the Digimon? It feels more like babysitting than anything else when you put it like that..."

Tohma smiled sympathetically. " You haven't had any fights since then... Well, neither have I, for that matter."

" At least you get to explore the Digital World," Masaru muttered. " Say, I hear you haven't been letting any of the film crew Dive with you."

Tohma didn't say anything at first as he continued to brush Masaru's hair. " It's too dangerous to bring those without Digimon partners to the Digital World."

" Is that really all there is to it?" Masaru said in doubt. " Don't you get fed up with them following you around everywhere too? I bet you get some good private time with Gaomon there in the Digital World."

" Let me just say this, but I was only making trips to the Digital World for certain research purposes. It doesn't have anything to do with DATS's mission specifically."

It seemed Tohma noticed Masaru sulking even though the brunet wasn't trying to show that he was. " So that's what brought you up here? You couldn't stand them following you around everywhere, so you went upstairs instead of back home? I know you have some issues in the logic department, but this..."

" Hey! I have an actual reason, thank you very much!" He stared at Tohma's reflection in the mirror in front of them. He cleared his head and remembered. " I need to ask you... Answer me honestly. Something... something happened back on ElDoradimon that you're not telling me."

Tohma had been in the middle of a brushing, and Masaru felt the slightest bit of faltering in that grip before it returned to normal.

" What exactly are you referring to?"

" ...Do I really need to tell you?"

Tohma looked back at him in the mirror's reflection. Masaru tried to read his expression, but it was so mixed that he couldn't get the faintest idea of what it was before Tohma replied.

" Masaru... that... Forget it ever happened."

" ...What?"

Tohma let out a breath spilling with his usual knack for concern. " I'm glad enough that I can still be here talking to you like this at all. Dealing with Kurata back then was... tremendously difficult."

Masaru brought his gaze off the mirror for a moment and went to look back at the real Tohma.

" The hell you on about? Kurata's gone now. It's thanks to us. All of us. I don't know what the heck you were doing by pretending to be on Kurata's side, but now I know that it was all for a good deed still. If you hadn't come back... I seriously would've thought you went and gone insane," Masaru paused. " I'm glad you didn't."

" Hmph," Tohma replied in a near grunt. " We should leave it at that then. Forget about everything else that happened around there."

" ...I can't."

They were silent again. Tohma sighed. " Then what do you want me to do about it?"

" Aa..."

Tohma had a point there. He hadn't thought that far. He had asked, hoping to get a full answer and to resolve things, but what kind of resolution was he expecting?

" Hey, YOU're the genius here..." Masaru said in a sulky voice. " I bet you can figure it out. That's... that's why I'm asking in the first place."

" Masaru..."

Masaru shifted slightly as he heard his name. The look in those azure blue eyes was that of someone who had more to say. But something was holding him back.

" Argh, where am I even going with this? Maybe I'm just going nuts because I haven't had a fight in a long time. You know what? Enough with the asking games from me. I'm still not getting anything."

They both ended up staring at the mirror for a while. Masaru knew clearly that he was frustrated at everything going on recently, and he was starting to feel a little bad about dumping all that frustration onto Tohma now.

But wait a sec, a lot of that frustration really was coming from Tohma in the first place, right? After all, Masaru had gone without fights for periods of times like this, such as the times after he had gotten in trouble with the police. He'd be able to wait it out back then rather painlessly. This time was completely different since he had such unresolved issues with Tohma.

He wasn't even sure what kind of resolutions he was going to get, but he just wanted SOMETHING to clear his mind somehow, even if it meant lashing out a bit.

" Just tell me already."

" Tell you..."

" I don't know what it is, but you're not telling me something! Or just... SOMETHING's missing! I... won't feel settled until I find out what it is. All I know is that it has to do with you."

They went back to a direct staring contest of sorts. Tohma expression slowly started to change out of its stoic wall into one of solemn surrender. Was he finally getting the resolve to talk?

And then sudden beeps echoed through the room, causing Masaru to jump slightly. It was coming from their communicators.

" Shit. Don't tell me those guys are trying to find me..." Masaru muttered. No bloody way was he going to let the filming crew interrupt at such timing.

Tohma looked at Masaru for a moment before he went to answer his, no longer holding that surrendering face he had on just earlier. Was that a glint of disappointment he saw in Tohma's eyes? Disappointment of what?

" Tohma speaking."

" Where did Masaru go?" came the operator's voice. It wasn't Kurosaki or Shirakawa during Masaru's shift, but another lady of similar caliber whose surname was Aoi.

Masaru was in the middle of making a motion to take away Tohma's communication device when the next transmission came in. " Anyway, we've got a Digimon on the loose."

" What, seriously?" Masaru shouted before he could hold himself back. He couldn't stop his grabbing motion, but it didn't matter since Tohma had easily dodged him anyway. He practically fell down.

" Masaru? Good, you're there. It's a real emergency; we need to send the both of you out there!"

" Both of us? What's going on?"

" It's a big one... It's an Ultimate Level! An Ultimate Level Digimon appeared!"

-  
Author blab -  
Memories can be haunting... and they can be a blessing. Boys, what will you make of them...  
Actually, what a mess. *patpats them*


	4. Chapter 4

" An Ultimate Level..." Tohma said slowly in awe of the situation.

They had hurried the butler to come back to the Norstein residence with Agumon before heading to the designated area, which happened to be the place where the DATS HQ building had previously been. It had been in the process of rebuilding, but now it had been reduced to a pile of rubble once again... and a giant Digimon was standing right on top of it. The tall highway lights which would normally have been keeping the area alit at night were still up, but they were acting as a spotlight for the Digimon now.

" Hey, are YOU the one who did this?" Masaru shouted up high from the far distance they had stopped at. He didn't think the Digimon would even hear him. Apparently, it didn't, since no response came.

Tohma pulled out his Digiwindow to analyze the Digimon.

" Omegamon... This one's no ordinary Ultimate; he's a combination of two Ultimates, WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon."

" Hmph, then that's all the better since the two of US are here!" Masaru said with a grin, " Agumon, let's go!"

" Yeah, Aniki!"

" WAIT, Masaru!" Tohma quickly grabbed Masaru by the shoulder. " Take a better look first. Something's unusual about him."

He was right. The eerily tall, white, machine-like Digimon was simply turning his head from side to side, as if in search of something. His noble stance and cape billowing behind him didn't suit the fact that he was standing on a mass of buildings he didn't even seem to be aware he had destroyed.

" Well, whatever he's doing, we don't have time for it," Masaru turned around shortly to face Tohma. " We've finally got a chance for a fight. And first off, he's gonna attract a lot of bad attention with that size of his. Either way, we gotta take him down, so why wait?"

" He's obviously not another Belphemon out to destroy the world. If we fight him with our Ultimates here, then we'll just be making another mess out of the city!"

Masaru paused. " Che. Then let's drag him over to some open place where we CAN beat the crap out of him!"

" You just want a fight."

" Hell ya I do. Know how long it's been?"

Tohma grabbed Masaru's shoulder once more. " Then you can spar me in boxing after this if you want. Just CALM DOWN for now."

Masaru briefly looked over at Agumon, who seemed eager to fight just as much as he did. He threw his Digimon a short apologetic look before snarling back at Tohma. " ...You're really gonna get it."

" Hmph. Try me."

After their agreement, Tohma realized Gaomon from his Digivice and they all headed towards Omegamon.

The DATS operator, Aoi, had done the smart thing and had prevented the filming crew from coming too close to the designated area, as a battle between Ultimates would put them in too much danger. In fact, the whole area had been pretty solidly evacuated by the time the DATS duo had arrived. The crew would be allowed to record from a distance, but they weren't likely to get anything worthwhile anyway.

" Geez... Hey, you up there! Are you even aware that you just destroyed that building?" Masaru shouted when he got within hearing range.

Omegamon slowly turned his head to face the group that had approached him. His voice came at them like it was coming through a gigantic concert speaker. " Is that what happened to this building? That's too bad."

" Too bad?" Masaru frowned, a little dumbfounded.

" I had difficulty finding an opening to the human world. This was the only one I could find after weeks of searching. I believe the other end happened to be inside this building, causing it to collapse upon my entrance."

" Ahh, this guy talks just like a certain other weirdo I know..."

" Don't look at me like that, Masaru," Tohma said as he raised an eyebrow. " Omegamon, what business do you have here in the human world?"

" Me? I'm just here as a mediator and escort. The one who's really here for business is..."

Out of the darkness under Omegamon's cape, a small figure hurled towards the humans.

" Tohma, INCOMING!" Masaru warned as he dived away from the object.

" Master!"

Tohma ducked out just in time. The pavement of the highway beneath them gave out and almost completely spliced into two by the crack from the impact.

" What the hell...?" Construction particles cluttered the air around them and Masaru had to shield his eyes for a moment. But that moment was short-lived, for he soon sensed a deadly aura behind him...

He turned around in a split second and leapt back. In front of his eyes, he saw a slick of silver flash through the dust. And not just a flash... a slash. A thin trail of dust followed through as the silver darted by. That was a definite slash. The sharp kind of slash.

" Shit!" Masaru found himself saying as he dodged more flashes. He couldn't see anything else in the dust.

" Aniki! It's a Digimon!" came a shout from another direction.

" A Digimon? There's another?"

The attacks stopped. The dust finally started to give way.

" Take the shield!" came a girl's voice. Before Masaru could say anything, a round shield was thrown in his direction. There was an incredibly thick thorn-like piece sticking out of the face side. The other side had a grip for him to hold onto. And not a single millisecond later, something was attacking him again.

' Why a shield?' was his first thought, but since he had one to go against whatever sharp thing was after him, he might as well use it. He held onto the grip and brought the shield out in front of him, and the next few attacks that came upon him clattered upon the shield's thorn.

He was just about to see who had attacked him through the clearing dust, but the figure vanished. His instincts told him to watch his back, and sure enough, the next attack came from behind. He turned around in a whirl and let the shield do its work, but this time he was literally sent flying.

" Strike Roll!" came the feminine voice again.

He'd been sent pretty high up. In fact, he was on eye-level with Omegamon...

" Whoa." He felt a touch of battle nostalgia as he took a glimpse of Omegamon's huge eyes high up in the sky. Omegamon himself hadn't moved an inch.

" Masaru!"

Masaru recognized the voice and looked down to see that most of the dust had cleared away and Gaogamon was emerging, Tohma on his back. The great blue dog-like Digimon leapt up and cushioned Masaru's fall, letting Masaru cling to the far end of his backside with his free hand.

" Good save!" Masaru said to the both of them. " Now what the heck is going on?"

" That Digimon who's attacking you..." Tohma began.

" An opening!"

BAM! Masaru was suddenly knocked off from Gaogamon's back. He had managed to bring his shield up in time, however, and once again he'd been sent into the air.

" Got you this time!"

It was Masaru's line. In the next strike, even in mid-air, Masaru had grabbed the assailant by the object that had hit the shield. It was the massive blade of a broad sword. With leverage, he brought his legs over the blade and slid down, heading directly towards the wielder and freaking her out.

" WAAaa!"

They both ended up collapsing on the ground in a messy heap.

" Ow, ow, ow..." Masaru muttered as he picked himself up with the shield still in hand. He got a good look at the assailant under him. It was a very obviously female character wearing a helmet with feathers coming out on the ends like wings. " Uh..."

" Get off me, you oaf!"

She quickly got back up, and realizing that her sword had been thrown some distance along the way, struck out with her fist instead. Masaru caught it face on. There was a set of ferocious serpent eyes staring at him from her gloves, surprising him a little. However, his gaze flashed to another fist coming his direction, and he stopped that one with his other fist as well.

He smirked at catching his opponent in a deadlock... or so he thought.

She flipped back with superhuman strength, swinging Masaru with her in a crazy waving motion. Masaru was forced to let go before he was slammed into the ground from the momentum. He was lucky enough to even be able to get back on his feet from the swing.

They had brief eye contact before they lunged at each other again. Or at least he thought he did since her helmet had a pair of serpent eyes that caught his attention. And again they were in a punch fest. The others didn't even bother to interrupt at this point. Agumon just stared in awe, Tohma and Gaogamon watched with casual interest in the back, and Omegamon seemed to not particularly care about what was going on at all.

Eventually, both Masaru and the female stood back from each other, panting off their exhaustion from trying to sock it to each other.

" You're... pretty tough... for a human," the female said between heavy breaths. " Let's call it a draw for now."

" You're not so easy yourself, for a female..." Masaru returned, tossing away the shield to relieve himself of the weight. " So who are you?"

She waited a while before replying, and as she did, she took her sword and shield back up and struck a tall pose. And she was in fact taller than both Masaru and Tohma... by perhaps a few centimeters. " Minervamon, of the 12 Olympian Gods. And you, young warrior?"

" Young warrior?" Masaru repeated, feeling a little odd from the title. " The name's Masaru. Daimon Masaru. What are you doing on my turf?"

" I'm looking for a certain Digimon whom I believe went here to the human world a few weeks ago. I don't suppose you would know where to find him. I've been looking for quite a long time."

" You had to bring this big 'ol Digimon here for that? You guys destroyed our HQ just when it was being rebuilt!"

" I don't know anything about this whole human world stuff, so I had to ask the first person I could find to take me there, that's all!" she countered with a pout, " No one besides big, tough guys like him ever bother to come near me. That's just how it is."

" Minervamon, based off Minerva, the Roman name of Athena, the Greek goddess of crafts and wisdom," Tohma stated as he approached the two, his Digiwindow open in front of him. " If you came here looking for someone, why did you attack us?"

Minervamon jabbed her sword into the ground (breaking more concrete, although the whole road would need fixing anyway) and started fiddling around with the locks of sky blue hair on the sides of her face. It was then when Masaru noticed she had some kind of hairpin on her locks, a silver, hexagonal one with some design on it. " I hadn't gotten a fight ever since I started looking for the guy. I needed to get it out of my system and you guys looked like you could take a few beatings."

Tohma looked like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to take that as a compliment, but Masaru sure did. " Heh, how convenient! I was just thinking the same thing."

Tohma came closer, still riding Gaogamon's back. " Looks like you two would get along just fine. You won't need a sparring match with me later at this rate, Masaru."

Ah. Something just now made a little pang sound inside him.

But the continuing conversation distracted him from lingering on the mental pain.

" Who're you?"

" I'm Tohma."

" Hmph." Minervamon said as she crossed her arms. " You look like some horseback prince from a fairy tale, except with some weird outfit on and an odd steed instead."

" Wha..." Perhaps he felt offended, for he dismounted Gaogamon and had him de-evolve back to Gaomon upon hearing Minervamon.

" Oh, don't worry about it. It's just what I picked up from reading so many stories from the human books that were in the Digital World."

Tohma looked puzzled. " You can read human books?"

" A good friend taught me. And with all the free time I've got, I do a lot of casual reading. Would you believe it?"

" I have no reason to doubt you..."

" Hey, Minervamon. Who is it you're looking for anyway?"

" Hmm? Oh, a fellow named BanchouLeomon. He's the one who taught me how to read! I was going to pay a visit to him at our usual place, but he wasn't there when I looked, and I heard he was here in the human world, so now I'm worried about him."

" BanchouLeomon!" Masaru exclaimed. " Wait, what are you worried about?"

" Eh?" At the question, Minervamon suddenly lost the excitement in her voice. " Well, uh... I'm sure you guys kind of know. When humans see things they're not familiar with... a lot of them get scared and do all sorts of horrible things to them. I mean, at least I know differently thanks to BanchouLeomon, but a lot of Digimon back in the Digital World think ALL humans are like that."

" ..." Masaru and Tohma both clenched their teeth and knew what the other was thinking at first glance. They were all TOO familiar with what Minervamon was referring to.

" BanchouLeomon can hold for himself," Masaru said after a while. " Although I do wonder where he's been lately."

" Speaking of that..." Omegamon suddenly spoke up, " He's not here."

" What? What do you mean?" shouted Minervamon.

" Yggdrasil gave us Royal Knights tracking devices for that Digimon. The tracking device isn't responding at all, which means he's not on this side. He probably went back to the Digital World already."

" Yggdrasil...?" Tohma repeated.

" What does the maintenance server want with BanchouLeomon?" Minervamon said with a wide frown. " And why didn't you tell me before we went into the human world? What was the point of us coming here?"

" The... thought had never occurred to me until just now."

She pointed an accusing finger up at the other Digimon, looking thoroughly unconvinced. " You just wanted to see what the human world was like!"

The big Digimon simply stood, unmoving, as he had been since arrival. But his eyes veered to one side conspicuously.

" Haa, well, there's no use griping about it now," Minervamon groaned as she went into a limp position for a moment. " Okay then, we're heading back to the Digital World! And you guys seem to know him too, so you're coming with us to help me find him!"

" Hey, don't decide things on your own!"

" We don't have the time for that kind of request..."

But before they could say or do anything else in resistance, Minervamon had pushed them towards Omegamon, who surprised the DATS members as he bent down and scooped them all up. The giant Digimon proceeded to take a light leap, and all of a sudden, a Digital Gate expanded underneath them, and Omegamon let himself fall in, dragging everyone else with him.

" EHHH?" came the general shouts of disbelief from the DATS members.

They arrived on the other side in a location they were all too familiar with. The deep blue crystalline structures in the wide space surrounding them, the giant floating rocks that made perfect stepping stones for Omegamon...

" This is Mercurimon's palace..."

" Oh, you've been here too? Such experienced humans~" Minervamon said in cheeky delight.

Omegamon released them in the area where Mercurimon's throne lay. He then proceeded to turn back to the gate room and cried, " ALL DELETE!"

A pure white light flashed out of the cracks behinds the throne, followed by a long whoosh sound.

" EH?" Masaru found himself repeating again. " Did he just..."

" He destroyed the gate," Tohma finished, eyebrow twitching.

" Deleted, more say. He did mention to me before that that gate was getting unstable anyway." Minervamon corrected. She was peering at some devices in her hand with curiosity.

Tohma's eyes widened when he saw them. " Hey, those are our communication devices...!"

CRACK. In the next moment, both Tohma and Masaru's communication devices had been reduced to useless, broken shells.

" Nooo! I had mine so well-customized too..."

Masaru couldn't help but feel a little sorry for Tohma mourning over their broken devices. But then he realized that their way of contact to DATS HQ had just been eliminated as well. And that meant no going back to the human world unless they managed to find another Digital Gate. They were stuck in the Digital World until then...

" Errr, sorry about that. I just wanted to see what kind of functions they had... but I've never been that great with machines."

Tohma's eyebrow twitched again. " Your ineptness with machines is even worse than Masaru's. Oh lord..."

" We're stuck here, Tohma."

" ...I know."

" Eh, we're stuck here?" came the cry from Masaru's follower.

" All the more reason to find BanchouLeomon as soon as possible! I'm sure he'd know where to find another Digital Gate. He knows so much about both the human and Digital worlds, after all," Minervamon said as she walked towards the center of the throne room.

There was a huge opening at the top of the throne room now, letting the night sky seep in from above. Assumedly, it was how Omegamon had entered.

The two DATS members and their Digimon all looked at each other for a moment.

" Not like we've got a better choice, Masaru. They... they don't seem to mean harm anyway," Tohma admitted.

" Yeah, yeah. Let's go already. The sooner we find him, the sooner we can get ourselves back to the real world."

Omegamon stepped out from the gate room and brought them all out of Mercurimon's palace and up through the skies.

" I'll take you guys to one stop and then I'll have to part ways for now. I'll need to report to Yggdrasil," he said.

" Yggdrasil... you mentioned him before," Tohma noted.

" We Royal Knights are Yggdrasil's loyal servants."

" Yggdrasil... ah, I just remembered!" Masaru shouted all of a sudden. " Dad went to look for Yggdrasil! If you know where Yggdrasil is, Dad's gotta be there! Can you take us to him?"

" Yggdrasil chooses who he will meet, not the other way around. If Yggdrasil wishes to meet you, Yggdrasil will appear before you. That is all."

" Whaaa? That's ridiculous... But I guess I knew it wouldn't be that easy either. Do you know if my father met Yggdrasil at least?"

" ...There was one human who did."

Masaru's eyes widened in excitement. " That must've been him then! Can you take me to HIM? Or at least tell him that we're looking for him?"

" But he's no longer with Yggdrasil. It makes no difference."

" ..." What kind of answer was that? He knew there couldn't have been anyone else who had met Yggdrasil, but if his father had done that, where the heck was that old man NOW?

" He's no longer with Yggdrasil... what exactly do you mean by that?" Tohma asked. Masaru looked over at him and was surprised to see the blond look so serious.

" I'm not aware of the details. I was not present when the event occurred."

Masaru, sitting cross-legged on the massive MetalGarurumon cannon, bent forward and plopped his head on his palms, pouting like no one's business and cursing. Tohma, however, fell into deeper thought.

" What could've happened to him if he hadn't tried making contact with us after meeting Yggdrasil?" the genius pondered.

" Hey, hey you guys, we're looking for BanchouLeomon, not some other guy!" Minervamon reminded them.

" Oh right. Omegamon, didn't you say you've got a device that tracks BanchouLeomon?" Masaru spoke up. " Since you said he's back in the Digital World, bring us to where he is!"

" Mm, the problem with that is... It's more like a Doppler device. It only tells me if BanchouLeomon is in the area and the reaction changes depending on one's distance from him. It doesn't show his exact location, however."

" ...What a useless device." Masaru grumbled. " You guys live in the DIGITAL World! Shouldn't your technology or whatever be all high-tech and all?"

" Perhaps I should've checked Yggdrasil for an upgrade. I haven't upgraded the device since I first received it five years ago."

Masaru and Tohma sweatdropped. " You've ruined my vision of the Royal Knights being responsible Digimon," Tohma said with some humorous pity. " In that case, since you say you're going to report to Yggdrasil, upgrade it after you drop us off somewhere and come back to us in the morning. Would that work out?"

" Sounds like a plan," Minervamon agreed.

" All right," Omegamon said afterwards. " Then how does staying at that building over there look for you?"

Omegamon didn't even need to point, for in easy sight ahead was the cliff where Masaru and Tohma had obtained their Burst Digivices. There was light coming somewhere from the inside of the dojo sitting atop of it, illuminating the long row of windows from their distance.

" Huh? I thought that dojo had been destroyed," Tohma commented.

" This place changes every time we come to it, apparently," Masaru said.

He remembered the first time they had gone to it, when it was just Tohma and their Digimon and they had been searching for a vaccine to cure Yoshino and Ikuto. That upside-down mansion had contained some kind of clue about his father before Blossomon had destroyed it, and when they had come back, BanchouLeomon had them use the dojo that had been set up there in its place. And now it was back...

" I'm sure a building is more suitable for you humans than a place like Mercurimon's palace," said Minervamon. " Speaking of which, I wonder where Mercurimon went."

" You knew Mercurimon?" Masaru asked.

" Oh boy do I know him~" Minervamon replied with a sly smile, her serpent eyes glowing. Masaru blinked. Present tense...

" Minervamon is one of the twelve Olympian Gods along with Mercurimon. It'd only be natural," Tohma noted.

" He and I are close-close buddies, just like BanchouLeomon. He's like my older brother except he's so much nicer than an average older brother~ I haven't seen him ever since he started guarding the gate here ten years ago though. I normally live very far away from here. Like alllll the way on the other side of the Digital World, you could say. But I can still remember making a ruckus with him just like it were yesterday. Oh, how I miss him... I wonder if he's doing all right?"

Masaru, Tohma and their Digimon glanced at each other in slight worry.

" The next time I see him, I've got so many stories to tell him..."

Omegamon softly landed next to the dojo at the cliff. Minervamon immediately took to running inside the dojo to check it out. In such aspect, she was even more childish than the others had thought, despite possibly being far older than them.

Tohma gave his worried look to the giant machine Digimon.

" Omegamon, I'm sure you know what happened to Mercurimon..."

" Yes, but I figured it would be best for someone closer to her such as BanchouLeomon to tell her the truth. She needs someone like him to be by her side when she learns of it."

The blond smiled faintly. " For a Royal Knight, you're really considerate of others... I've renewed my opinion of you."

" Hmm." Omegamon said with just the tiniest change of emotion. " I will return tomorrow morning then. Good night." With a grand wave of his cape, Omegamon launched himself from the ground and was gone in an instant.

" All right, we should head in as well. Some sleepover this turned out to be, eh, Masaru?"

" Ah? Oh... Yeah, not exactly what I imagined it'd be like," Masaru joked back.

Actually, deep down, he was feeling some sense of loss, but he couldn't pinpoint what exactly it was still.

" Sorry about this, just when I had finally been able to return the favor..."

" We'll just have to redo it another day. First, we gotta get back to the human world."

" Hmm~ You guys want to go back to that human world?" came a familiar female voice. Minervamon had her head peeped out from the dojo entrance. " I frankly wasn't all too impressed with whatever I saw. Too many blocky buildings in the way. I could hardly see anything except those!"

" It certainly wouldn't be much of a sight when everyone had evacuated anyway. None of the other lights were on," Tohma informed.

" Whatever. I just go where my friends are, and since BanchouLeomon's here, I'm fine staying here."

Tohma just shrugged and made his way into the dojo. Masaru didn't say anything as he followed.

The only light inside came from a sort of chimney that had been added there since the last time they had been to it. Nobody asked who had lit the fire in the chimney, but they were happy to have it. The fire gave the whole dojo space an earthy glow, bright enough for them to see, but also dim enough for them to rest their eyes easily. There was even some bedding material in a closet space behind one of the walls... or more like practice mats, meditation pillows and the like. Well, they had to make with what they had.

" A fighter's lifestyle can be quite simple, indeed..." Tohma observed as he settled onto the mats. His gaze fell on Minervamon and the other Digimon, who had all already gone to sleep all huddled together next to the chimney fire. It was a rather touching sight.

" It's definitely not the big soft bed YOU're used to," Masaru said, settling next to him.

" I've spent plenty of nights in the Digital World, as I'm sure you're familiar with. I can deal with it just fine, thank you."

" I know, I know. Don't get all uptight about it." Masaru laid back on the mats next to Tohma. " But if you want to know something, even this feels so much more comfortable than the DATS warehouse shelter."

" The warehouse shelter..." Tohma suddenly grew quiet.

" It was HORRIBLE trying to get to sleep there. The floors were so freaking hard and cold. I mean, I'm a man so normally I can take that much, but that warehouse was SERIOUSLY uncomfortable. Of course, you wouldn't know..."

" You're right. I wouldn't know. But if you're comfortable here now, that's all that matters. Let's just hope... you won't have to go through that again. Good night, Masaru."

" ... Good night."

Masaru had a flash of déjà-vu right there. Wasn't their sleepover before... just like this?

He wasn't going to have things end up the same way twice in a row. He sat up then brought himself over Tohma, his arms holding himself up to blockade the blond in between.

" M-Masaru?"

" No more beating around the bush. I've had enough."

Tohma, startled, made a hollow throat noise.

" What the heck is it you want? Do I need to punch you again? Whatever it is, just say it clearly."

" What I want?" Tohma said, very apparently confused.

" Yeah." Masaru said firmly.

" Is that how I seemed..." He turned his head to the side for a moment, as if contemplating the feedback, then turned back with an apologetic face. " I'm sorry, Masaru."

The Digimon were still sound asleep despite Masaru's mini outburst earlier. The chimney fire crackled on while Tohma continued.

" I kind of got ahead of myself back on ElDoradimon. I hadn't imagined things would have changed so quickly afterwards. I... want you to forget what happened there. Didn't I say that before?"

It was then when Masaru remembered where they had ended their previous conversation. Sure, Tohma had given him an answer... but he still didn't feel satisfied. Whatever kind of answer he was looking for, that definitely wasn't it.

" That answer's not going to satisfy me... but we gotta move on somehow."

" That's what I had in mind."

" Okay, then how about this? I'll try forgetting about it or whatever. But then YOU need to forget about it too. I don't really know what's going on here, but you've been acting a little strangely ever since you came back. Basically, you're saying you want to do some kind of rewind, right?"

Tohma's eyebrows lifted up his forehead. " In essence, yes, I suppose."

" But that's impossible."

Even if he were to use the memory erasing device, he doubted he would forget. He had already broken past its effects once, and he knew he would end up doing it again if it ever were to reoccur.

" ... But at this rate, we'll just be stuck in the same place. Masaru, you're the one who said..."

" Yeah, yeah, I know! That's why I'll do it. And you too, right?"

Even without the memory erasing device, he could still try to forget on his own. If that would stop Tohma from being so weird around him... If that would stop HIM from FEELING so weird around Tohma...

Tohma looked up at him, still sandwiched between Masaru's arms at his sides. After a slight pause, he nodded.

" Good. Now that's more like a man. We'll start as a refreshed team tomorrow morning, yeah?"

Tohma smiled. " You're just going to punch everything that gets in your way as usual, aren't you."

" Hmph, if you think I'm so easy to read, then that's all the better for you to strategize some support, isn't it?"

" Glory hog."

" Perfectionist."

They stared each other down in the firelight. Or more like Masaru did and Tohma stared upwards. Then Masaru gave him a smirk and turned back towards his own spot on the mats, freeing Tohma. He chuckled to himself quietly, glad to relive a bit of their light arguing. Despite their negative comments at each other, he felt quite relaxed by the end, like squishing a stress ball. This was more like their familiar old days.

And out of the quiet came an even quieter whisper. " Anything to support you, Masaru."

Masaru blinked. He wasn't sure if he had heard that at all or if it was just his imagination. " ...What did you say?"

" Good night, Masaru."

" A... Ah. Good night, Tohma."

Masaru felt some huge relief in him finally, but at the same time he was still a little confused. Well, at the very least, the situation was looking a lot better for now.

That was right. He was in the Digital World. He could fight again. His comrades were by his side: his best fighting pal, Agumon, and the one he trusted most... Tohma. Even after everything they went through because of Kurata, he found himself only trusting Tohma even more.

Now if only he could tell what the hell that genius nobleman was REALLY thinking at times like this.

But no matter. He knew he didn't have the ability to read minds anyway. If it came down to it, he'd punch it out of Tohma sooner or later. Now that they were going to start on a clean slate (well, "cleaner" slate), perhaps it would put his mind more at ease...

He stared into the fireplace as he sensed himself nod off to sleep. The flickering of the flames seemed to grow heavier and darker, until he had drifted off completely into a separate consciousness.

And within that consciousness, only Tohma was there with him...

-  
Author blab

I figure Yggdrasil would be a much less intrusive existence as long as both worlds weren't in perilous danger of colliding into each other like the canon. ^^;


	5. Chapter 5

Just when they thought the unexpected events would be dimming down on them, they came back all the worse.

If only he had known...

Masaru opened his eyes to find that whatever warm and cozy atmosphere had been coming from the dojo was replaced with the ominous and barren atmosphere of some unknown place. The mats and resting pillows were all gone. The other Digimon were all gone.

In fact, everything was gone. Everything had gone pitch black. He couldn't see a thing, not even his own self.

Jolted awake from the abrupt change, he immediately stood up and looked around him frantically. Or at least he tried to.

Nothing. He saw nothing. He could sense that he was no longer in the dojo, but he had no idea where he was now, what else was with him, how much space he had... if he was trapped...

But his hearing was still there, and right then he could tell his heart was pumping like a maniac. He seemed to be standing on something, but if he took a step somewhere, where would he end up?

He bent down to touch the ground, which was bumpy and cold to the touch. It was likely some kind of pavement...

He told himself to calm down, to figure out what had happened to him instead of panicking.

Focusing on his hearing, he heard someone mumble below him.

...Tohma.

Tohma was there, just waking up as well.

For the meanwhile, he let out a long breath. Maybe the others were there.

" Agumon! If you're there, wake up!" he shouted. Echoes came back at him.

" Masaru... I can't see anything... where are we..."

" Somewhere where we can't see anything."

Masaru heard Tohma sigh.

" Gaomon! Minervamon!!" Tohma called out. He only got echoes back at him as well. " Sounds like we're the only ones here."

" This is really freaky... Even if it's the Digital World, if this still IS the Digital World, this is still..."

" Where are the others..."

" I'm sure they're fine somewhere, Tohma. Let's just figure out where the hell we are first."

He heard the sounds of Tohma moving around. " Shoot, both my Digivice and Digiwindow... We'd have some light if they'd just respond."

Masaru reached around his chest area to grope around for his Digivice. " My Digivice isn't working either..."

" Then keep talking. I'm heading over to you."

" Eh?"

He heard a couple footsteps close by. He turned towards the sound, still feeling odd that he couldn't even see that he was turning.

" You're not that far away. Keep going."

He heard a couple more footsteps. Actually, they sounded more like shuffles across the ground. He could tell Tohma was being pretty cautious. Even if they couldn't see anything, even if they knew they were on solid ground still, that didn't mean there might be something else there, after all...

" Keep going, Tohma..."

There were a couple more shuffles.

" Masaru, what do you really think about the filming crew?"

" What??"

" I just need a subject for you to keep talking about."

" Mm... okay, whatever. But where can I start... Oh, THAT girl! I think one of them has a major crush on you or something because she always ends up talking about you whenever they get bored enough to bring the topic up, and..."

He felt something pull on the front edge of his jacket.

" Is that you?"

" Yeah. That's my jacket."

" All right."

Masaru felt the weight on his jacket move to his waist. And then all of a sudden, he felt himself get whisked into Tohma's warmth. He couldn't see it, but he could feel Tohma's arms coming around his back and embracing him. His chin bumped into what was probably Tohma's shoulder.

" Hey, what are you doing?!"

Tohma didn't reply at first, but shifted Masaru around in his embrace so that his back was up against Tohma instead of his front.

" Tohma...?!"

" Sorry... was that too tight?" Masaru felt Tohma back off a little, but his hands remained around his abdomen.

" Err... that wasn't what I meant."

" I figure this would be the best way to move around until we figure out where we are."

" ...Why?"

" It'll reduce the possibility of us running into something harmful if one follows the other's tracks, and this is the only way to make sure of that."

" Oooookay. So why am I in front?"

" ...We can switch if you want to. It doesn't... really matter..."

" Tohma, don't tell me..." It wasn't like the genius was showing any sign of it from what he could tell, but something was hitting Masaru's gut feeling. " Are you scared of being in the pitch black?"

" No, a-absolutely not!" Tohma said hastily. " It's not like some kind of ghost or something is going to show up here... Shouldn't it be common sense just to be more cautious when you can't even see the territory around you? Hurry up and get moving. It's also really cold here, so I figured you could use the warmth, but if we stay here too long, things'll still get troublesome."

" ......"

Although he knew for himself that they should get moving, he stood there for a moment longer, grinning for no one to see.  
If a ghost really were to show up, he'd sure love to see Tohma's reaction... Sometime, he'd definitely have to take him through a ghost house.

But for now, those arms around him were a little distracting.

He took a couple steps, then halted. He hadn't gotten a chance to walk himself, and just now he was starting to realize how nerve-wrecking it was to walk around and have no idea what was around him. Was this how people who suddenly turned blind felt like when they woke up after the occurrence?

...Had THEY suddenly turned blind?

He couldn't even see his hand in front of his eyes, and there was no change in blackness when he covered them.

No... that would be too ridiculous. He was perfectly fine the day before.

He reached his hand outwards, bracing himself in the case he were to come into contact with something.

" You heard those echoes in this place, right? My guess is that this is some large, enclosed area, like a long hallway, and we're at one of the ends."

" Heh, you can tell that much?" Masaru said, fairly impressed. " If you're so confident about what kind of place this is, you should be up in front."

He turned around in Tohma's grip and reversed their positions, quite a feat in the pure dark if it weren't for him.

" But........ fine."

Tohma continued from where Masaru had left without another word.

...That was a lot easier than he thought it'd be. Maybe Tohma really wasn't that scared after all?

" HELLO?! IS ANYONE THERE?!" Tohma shouted. They listened for the echoes. " This way."

Masaru tagged along as Tohma took his cautious steps.

Correction. His... overly cautious... shuffles. For a while, Masaru would keep bumping into Tohma because he'd grow impatient and was hoping he'd move ahead more.

" ...Yai! That does it. Switch back! We aren't getting anywhere at this rate." He went to reverse their positions again, but this time, he met up with some resistance.

" No, it's fine here, don't bother."

Tohma was trying to keep him behind as Masaru pushed forward. " Then at least you could pick up the pace! Or are you that freaked out that you'll run into something?"

" No, I'm just..."

While they were pushing against each other, Tohma suddenly stepped on Masaru's foot and lost his balance. Masaru felt a hand grab his arm and soon they were both sent tumbling onto the ground... but not before he heard Tohma hit upon something else.

" W-Wha!!"

A flash of light invaded their vision just then. Masaru closed his eyes at first, then slowly opened him to find that he could suddenly see where they were. It was dim at first, but his eyes quickly adjusted.

They were behind steel bars. Apparently, when Tohma's back had hit the bars, it had triggered the light.

Naturally, Masaru thought it was an ordinary prison at first, but as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he slowly wished more and more that it had really been just an ordinary prison. They were inside some cell that was about the size of the dojo, except much taller, with nothing on their side of the bars except the hard rock floor below them. The light was coming from odd-looking "torches" lined along a huge hallway down one side of the cell, although the bars were obviously blocking their path. Those "torches" were just digital projections of flames embedded in square panels across the dark, brick walls. A small but eerie fog hovered over their feet, adding to the noisome atmosphere of the area.

" Tohma, where the heck is this place?"

" I know only as much as you do about this," Tohma replied with narrowed eyebrows. He had his Digiwindow out, and it was functioning properly now. " Our devices seem to be working now, but I'm still not getting any information about this place. Someone must be playing a rather nasty prank on us."

Masaru looked around him some more as Tohma gave up on his Digiwindow and stowed it away. A prank? Was this setting all an illusion then? And who was doing this? It couldn't be that Digimon who was with them... Minervamon, could it?

Sure, they'd met fist-to-fist, and he knew the best way to understand a man was through their fists, but Minervamon wasn't a man. He felt like he had his limits for understanding females.

' What the heck is going on here...'

" Oh, so they really did fall for the bait. Marvelous, just marvelous~!"

Masaru lifted his head at the new feminine voice. It was coming from the hallway. And she didn't sound anything like Minervamon.

" Who's there?"

Two massive, shadowed figures appeared in the hallway. Masaru clenched his fists instinctively as the figures approached the cell.

" Just a couple Demon Lords~" One of the figures stepped out into clearer view, and the sound of half a dozen wings shuffling against each other echoed through the hall. " I wonder if you're familiar with us?"

Tohma suddenly stepped forward in front of Masaru with an upset expression. " Demon Lords... like Belphemon."

" EH?!" came Masaru's shock at hearing the familiar name.

" We're looking for one of our missing pets," the feminine voice said. She too stepped out from the shadows into clearer view. " His name is Belphemon. Have you happened to have seen him? Leviamon says his scent is all over you human filth."

Masaru saw Tohma clench his fists as well.

" Lucemon Falldown Mode and Lilithmon..." the genius said darkly. He didn't even need his Digiwindow for these guys.

Masaru switched his view back to the Demon Lords. One of them looked like some holy angel, except half of him represented devil wings. The female stuck out to Masaru like some exotic purple-themed Cleopatra with a really hideous-looking arm. Even though they stood as tall as perhaps four or five times his height, he... wasn't all that impressed. After all, ShineGreymon was even bigger than them.

" What's the big deal? Let us out!" Masaru roared. " Belphemon's gone! There's no point in looking for him."

" Oh, but there is," Lilithmon said. " Surely his Digiegg must still be in your realm."

" His Digiegg?" Masaru looked at Tohma. " Tohma, what happened to his Digiegg..."

" It's still under DATS's custody," Tohma said, carefully keeping his tone low. " And giving it to the other Demon Lords is out of question anyway."

" I don't believe you're in any condition to refuse. You know what we can do to you, I take it?" Lucemon said knowingly.

The DATS member in blue didn't back down even one step. " Well, I have my suspicions. How come you're asking for Belphemon NOW of all times? How come it took you this long?"

" Hmph!" Lilithmon shook her head, her hair ornaments ringing as they knocked into each other with the motion. " We've no reason to tell you. If you won't hand over Belphemon's Digiegg..."

She lifted her demonic-looking hand, each long fingertip spilling with dark aura. Masaru peered at it curiously as she made curling motions with her fingers, one-by-one.

And then he felt something heavy upon his neck. He turned... and Tohma had his hands around him.

" Tohma, wha-..."

Tohma's hands tightened firmly around his neck and cut off his breath.

" M...Masaru... Move... away..." Tohma muttered. Masaru's eyes opened wide as he saw Tohma struggling against his own body. " No... I..."

Tohma was... choking him...

Tohma cringed, struggling against Lilithmon's control. Even if Masaru wanted to say something back, he couldn't. He brought his arms up to pull Tohma away, but his body froze up midway.

" Oh no you don't," Lucemon sneered. He too was swinging his hand and fingers in curling motions.

" You're in the realm of the Demon Lords now. Anything that touches the fog in this trap will have no choice but to be at our utter wits. Now swear that you'll bring Belphemon's Digiegg to us!"

Masaru fell bottom first to the cold floor, bringing a resisting Tohma down with him. The fog started enveloping them. Masaru tried to shake his head as much as he could, refusing the Demon Lords.

" How tiring. You humans won't be any use to us if we kill you, so we'll just have to punish you in other ways until you give in."

" St... Stop..." Tohma struggled to say. He was kneeling between Masaru's legs and his arms were shaking, but his grip on Masaru's neck didn't let up.

He knew Tohma wasn't doing it on his own will, yet seeing Tohma like this seemed to hurt him in so much more than his blocked airways.

Suddenly, Masaru felt a pain in his legs and chest. It started off insignificant at first, but it quickly got worse as Masaru saw a dark aura creep up from the fog from where the pain was growing. His eyesight started getting fuzzy. He was running out of oxygen... it hurt...

And then he felt something in his legs practically explode.

He wanted to shout out, to wail, but Tohma's grasp on him only caused him even further pain and he could only end up contorting his face in cruel silence. He couldn't even see what had happened to him through the fuzziness and fog.

" Masaru...!" came Tohma's cry, as if trying to shout in his stead. Yet Masaru heard it as a distant voice.

Tohma was still fighting, yet he looked like he wanted to sob out in tears.

" Huh! Lucemon, you should take more time when you've got prey like this. It's more effective if you make the pain worse more gradually."

" Hmph. I'm not as interested in that kind of pleasure as you are. I just want to get rid of this regret I've had for being sealed for so long as soon as I can, and it starts with REVENGE!"

Masaru could sense his consciousness fading out. If he faded out here, he knew it would be his end, he could feel it. No, he didn't want to die like this...

Not with Tohma like that...

Masaru was in horrid pain. Not just himself, but Tohma as well. He could still see that clearly in his dimming eyesight. He couldn't even feel the pressure on his neck anymore, just Tohma's pained expression...

No, not like this.

He still had so much to do. So much to find out. So much to explore.

So much he wanted to know...

" Ma...sa..."

As long as Tohma was right there fighting with all he could to free himself, Masaru didn't want to give up either.

The next moments passed in a strange, dream-like flurry for Masaru. He remembered hearing several loud crashing noises, one that resulted in the cell bars disappearing. The Demon Lords gave distraught sounds of disappointment, and he remembered Tohma slowly loosening the grip on his neck. He remembered Tohma using his chest as a head rest for a while as the blond panted in exhaustion.

And then Tohma got up, the fog had started to clear up, but his fuzzy sight could only vaguely see the colors and outlines of the objects around him. He saw BanchouLeomon, Minervamon, Agumon and Gaomon. BanchouLeomon and Minervamon seemed to be holding back the black and white figure that was likely Lucemon. Lilithmon was right next to them, but her outline indicated that she was no longer her easygoing self.

Ah... the other Digimon had found them. Thank goodness.

It took Masaru all of his remaining strength just to lift his head to see Tohma pull out his Digivice and perform a set of Digisoul Charges he hadn't seen before. Or whatever he could make of it...

Gaomon's figure transformed, and a blaze of blueish light flashed through the entire cell and hallway, giving Masaru nothing to see but white for a moment. When it cleared out, Lucemon was gone, and Tohma was still standing in front of him.

Was that... Tohma's doing...?

Lilithmon said something to them, but the voice sounded so distant to Masaru that he could hardly tell what she was saying at all. He did, however, hear "Mercurimon." Minervamon attacked her with furious swipes of her broad sword, but Lilithmon dodged easily. Minervamon spun a giant twister-tornado with her sword and sent it towards Lilithmon, but Masaru and Tohma were in the twister's path as well.

Tohma picked him up and dived away just in time. The movement gave him more pain, but he was too beaten in to even react, save for cringing.

Even when Lilithmon vanished into thin air, escaping the scene, and Gaomon returned to his original form, Minervamon continued her vicious attacks, leaving everyone to defend for themselves. Tohma had to dive away with Masaru in his hold a few more times. BanchouLeomon had to step in and physically stop the berserk Minervamon.

Normally, Masaru was used to withstanding huge amounts of pain, but the sudden movements made him lose his ability to hold himself together. As he saw the familiar Digimon in the distance, and as Tohma stared down at him, his sense of alertness fell and he went out with it.

----

When he regained consciousness, he found himself staring at a white, tiled ceiling. His entire mentality remained fuzzy for a few minutes until he finally realized that he was in a hospital bed. His ponytail hair had been undone and he was no longer wearing his DATS uniform, but a set of light blue robes instead.

And he couldn't get up. It hurt like no tomorrow when he tried.

He slowly remembered what had happened just earlier to him.

" Masaru..."

He recognized Tohma's voice. He slowly turned his head towards the direction of the voice, and he smiled with faint relief as he saw Tohma there along with the other Digimon, as well as his mother and Chika.

They hadn't even waited for Masaru to say anything before covering him with affection. His mother was the first to come up to him, hugging him with extra care and crying out in joy. Chika made a similar hug afterwards, and then the others had to restrain Agumon from doing too much to his Aniki, but he got his hug too.

It took him a while longer before he found himself able to speak anyway. He looked towards Tohma and BanchouLeomon who was standing behind him. " What... what happened... back in the Digital World?"

Tohma and the others looked like they weren't sure where to start. But Masaru found somewhere to start anyway.

" My legs..."

His voice came out like a toad's croak, and his neck still hurt.

Masaru watched as Tohma pressed a button on the side of the bed, which shifted the mattress's angle so that Masaru was sitting up without having to move his legs. " You'll be okay, Masaru. Your legs are just wrapped in castings. Lucemon had fractured some bones in there, fortunately nothing too drastic. We implanted some internal fixation devices that'll be absorbed into your body as you heal. It'll be a painful recovery, but you'll recover, I'm sure."

That brought a small grin to Masaru's face. With his family around, looking like they'd cry again, he gave it his all to stay positive. " Heh, of course. You're talking to Japan's number one toughest man, after all. How long did they say I'll need?"

" Although I said they weren't drastic, there were... a lot of fractures. Under usual circumstances, someone your age would need more than a month before they can even start moving again. That's not including physical therapy afterwards. But for you..." Tohma raised his eyebrows. " I doubt you'll need that long."

" Hmph! I won't need the physical therapy either," Masaru retorted. He was feeling pretty awake already, even though his voice was still groggy.

" Oh yes you will. I'll personally see to it."

" Huh, what? Are you going to be my doctor or something?"

" As a matter of fact, yes, I'll be your physician. Don't underestimate the physical therapy, since that's a lot more complicated than the healing. I'll be in charge of your diet too. You could even say you're going to have the swiftest fracture recovery of your magnitude in the history of mankind."

Masaru just looked up at the blond with a blank expression. He wanted to ask if he was joking, but he already knew the answer, and it wasn't worth asking with his voice hurting him. He could almost laugh at the last sentence, but he didn't.

" You better listen to Tohma-kun, Masaru-niichan! He even gave us a list of things to bring you every few days," Chika said, proudly sticking the paper list in front of his face.

" But besides that..." Tohma paused. " I'm sorry, Mrs. Daimon. Would you mind if we had some private conversation? You're free to come visit him again afterwards. And you can take Agumon back with you then too."

" That's certainly all right with me."

" Aniki..."

" As nice as it'd be to have company, you'd be bored out of your mind spending all day here," Masaru told his partner. " Looks like we just won't be able to cause a ruckus for a while. But I'll be back, I promise. Keep enjoying the human world for what it is, okay? And protect Mom and Chika while I'm not around. Can you do that for me?"

" S-Sure, Aniki..." the yellow dinosaur said, eyes watering up.

" Now that's being a man." Masaru knocked the Digimon's head softly with his fist.

" I'm just glad to see you're all right, Masaru. You had me so worried."

" Sorry, Mom..."

" There's no need to apologize to me at this point. Just make sure you recover well, got it? Tohma-kun's going to be doing a lot to help you, so be grateful!"

" ......" Masaru wanted to give her a look to show that how he obviously didn't want so much help to hold for his manliness, but the expression seemed to go right over her head and she just continued smiling in concern as she left with Chika.

" See you later, Masaru-niichan!"

" Get better soon!"

Tohma escorted them to the elevators and came back, sitting down on the visitor's chair next to Masaru's bed. Gaomon sat down on one of the other chairs, while BanchouLeomon and Minervamon preferred to remain standing. Minervamon had her sword and shield minimized as hairpins on her forelocks, the shield hairpin aligned next to the mysterious, hexagonal one. Naturally, there were no other patients in the room, and Tohma explained to Masaru that their wing was specifically reserved for DATS facilities, so the Digimon were free to roam around as well.

" Now to the matter at hand..." Tohma started. " What happened back in the Digital World was... BanchouLeomon, Minervamon and our Digimon came to rescue us from that cell, and then BanchouLeomon found us a Digital Gate so we could go back to the real world."

" Yeah, I can tell that much at least. But where the heck were we and how did the two of us end up there?"

" That cell and the hallway... are not from the Digital World we know."

" ...Huh?"

" It's actually another partition. I doubt you'd understand if I tried to explain the details right now, so just to cut down to the chase, that place is called Asgard. The Digital World we usually roam around in is the partition called Midgard."

" O... Okay."

" If it's easier for you, think of Asgard as the land above where lords like THEM live, and Midgard as the middle land where we usually are."

" Heaven and Earth? Although that place was no Heaven."

" Hmph, indeed. Anyway, the Demon Lords were able to set up a bug in Midgard that would create a sector where anything that enters within that sector could be instantly transferred to Asgard. And that bug happened to be in the dojo. They only wanted to lure us humans in, to get Belphemon's egg from us."

" I had the dojo rebuilt after you received your Burst Digivices, but I hadn't returned to it since," BanchouLeomon added. " After Belphemon's defeat, they could have easily set it up without my notice."

" Yes, but now we've contained the bug. Err, that is, BanchouLeomon did, which is how the rest of the Digimon were able to come rescue us. Anyway, now we can use the transfer capability between Midgard and Asgard to our own advantage."

" Eh? Why do you even want to get near that Asgard place ever again?" Masaru questioned.

BanchouLeomon stepped in to fill the details. " The Seven Demon Lords aren't at their full power yet, so they're weaker whenever they transfer out of their original partition, Asgard. That's why they brought you INTO it, since they can use more of their power there. Even so, they're still not in full power until a full year passes after the seal's broken."

" A full year after the seal's broken..." Masaru repeated. " Wait, what seal?"

" The seal on Belphemon that human bastard broke when he brought the Digiegg out of that sacred temple and back to the human world." Minervamon growled all of a sudden. It was the first time she had spoken since Masaru woke up.

Quick flickerings of the berserk Minervamon popped into his memory. He could tell something was definitely going on with her.

" Yes, that seal," Tohma said solemnly. " Actually, that seal doubled as a seal for the Demon Lords in Asgard as well. It had kept it locked in some sort of frozen state. Now the lock's been gone for what... how many months?"

" They've started getting quite a bit of their power back, that's for certain," BanchouLeomon commented.

" Master and I were able to defeat Lucemon," Gaomon spoke up, doing a not-so-good job of hiding his accomplished mood. " With our Burst Mode."

Burst Mode... Tohma's? That was... what Tohma had done back there?

" Yes, I managed to activate Gaomon's Burst Mode and we defeated Lucemon," Tohma said, although he didn't sound nearly as enthusiastic as his Digimon partner. " But Lilithmon escaped."

" And she left a message for Minervamon," said BanchouLeomon. " About Mercurimon."

Minervamon gritted her teeth, and her two long ponytails seemed to defy gravity as they slowly rose behind her.

" I... I won't believe he's dead!" she growled.

" And now she's refusing to acknowledge it after going berserk about it back in Asgard." BanchouLeomon looked down at her as she refused to look back.

" Something like that could never happen to him. He was the bravest of all of us... The one who cherished his friends the most..."

" Face up to it! You're a warrior, aren't you?! Stop being such a child!"

She stared back at BanchouLeomon in shock. " A child..."

The others just stayed still as the two Ultimate Levels stared at each other. ' Ah, so she may not be a man, but she has her pride as a warrior,' Masaru noted for himself. ' Heh, it's pretty much the same thing.'

" Minervamon... even warriors are allowed to cry for their lost comrades." BanchouLeomon placed a massive paw-like hand on Minervamon's shoulder. " But denying them will do them no honor. You'll only end up stuck in the same place, unable to move on."

At that point, even her serpentine eyes lost their upsetting glow and Minervamon was reduced to tears, letting BanchouLeomon's hand support her. The tall lion man brought her closer and she cried into his chest.

The others watched silently, knowing all too well the sorrow she was experiencing and feeling remorse for having been unable to prevent it. If only they'd been stronger back then...

" Minervamon, let's take a little walk out of the room, just the two of us," BanchouLeomon suggested. " The two of us have things that we can only reminisce alone."

" Mm..." Minervamon let herself get led out of the room by BanchouLeomon, leaving Masaru and Tohma with their Digimon.

" BanchouLeomon and Minervamon... They must all be really, REALLY old friends," Agumon said sadly, " How old do you think they are?"

Masaru really didn't think that was a good subject to be thinking about. Although he was a bit curious too, honestly.

Tohma seemed to be thinking a similar thing as well, but he changed the subject. " Masaru, I'll give you details about how we're going to proceed with things on a later visit. I'll need to approve some plans with Satsuma first."

" Approve? So you've got things figured out already, eh? All this happened so quickly, I can't tell what's started or ended at all..." Masaru admitted. He turned his head to look at his legs again, wistfully observing the constraints of the casts on him.

" Precisely another reason why I'm leaving the rest of the details for another day," said Tohma with a hint of his cocky smile. " What you need most right now is solid rest and good nutrition, so I'll make you get those. If you need to change the mattress's position, just use that button I pressed earlier, and press this button if you need any assistance from the nurses. You'll need it for going to the bathroom at least. If there's nothing else you need, I'll be leaving for today...... Get some good rest, Masaru."

The blond stood up and patted Masaru's head. At the touch, Masaru felt a sharp d茅j?vu of what happened back in Asgard and he instinctively flinched.

Tohma noticed and pulled his hand back with a look of regret on his face. He turned away and started heading for the door, Gaomon following at his heels.

" Tohma," Masaru said heavily in the back of his throat.

Tohma paused.

Back then, Tohma had nearly suffocated him to death with his own hands. Even though he knew it wasn't of his own free will, it was still a shocker for the fighter to see his teammate in such a position. And yet so sadly familiar...

But this time...

" You... You broke out of Lilithmon's body control on your own, didn't you. The others had nothing to do with it. You stopped and fought back with the Burst Mode. That's how it really went, right?"

" ......"

An intense silence covered the room for a while.

And then Tohma turned around just enough to throw Masaru gently raised lips. " Perhaps I did. Just shows how strong I am as a man, doesn't it?"

Masaru had seen that smile before. He was hiding something behind that smile...

" See you later, Masaru."

" Ah. Bye."

They'd told each other to forget about those times, yet why were those memories haunting him even more than before?

----

The next day when Tohma came to visit, he indeed did have news of his plans to share with Masaru.

He explained everything "from the top" to refresh the more... hard-of-comprehending boy.

For DATS, the main issue at hand was what the Demon Lords had been after: Belphemon's egg. The release of the seal on Belphemon's egg had also unlocked the seal on the Asgard partition where the other Demon Lords reigned. However, those Demon Lords would need a full year to regenerate all of their previous power. Several months had already passed since the unlocking.

Unless they were to use a method such as Kurata's and destroy the Demon Lords completely without even leaving a Digiegg, they had only one real solution. They'd have to re-seal Belphemon's egg as well as access from the Asgard partition once more.

The previous seal had been done by the Twelve Olympian Gods ages ago, which included Minervamon and Mercurimon. But now that Mercurimon was gone, they no longer had all twelve...

Tohma noted that the natural balance of the Digital World would probably be restored and a new Mercurimon would arise one day, but they had no telling of how long it would take. They frankly couldn't afford to risk the wait. Once the Demon Lords fully replenished their powers, they would be able to cross over to the Midgard partition and possibly even the human world with no complications. DATS needed to stop every one of them before it was too late.

Lucemon had already been taken down. However, since they DID simply return him to being a Digiegg, there was no telling when he'd become a menace again.

Tohma's logic was that in the end, the Olympian Gods had used some kind of digital code to seal away the Demon Lords. The previous code had made it impossible for other Digimon to even see Belphemon's Digiegg, and thus they would be unable to take it away from the temple it was hidden in. Of course, humans like Kurata weren't affected. Tohma had proposed to Satsuma that he should program a similar code, in fact, a code that would prevent even humans from breaking the seal. It would involve establishing the biochemical link between the digital data of Digimon and humans-- that is, in a way that wouldn't be harmful to either party like Kurata's methods involved-- meaning that tons of testing and hit-and-miss experiments were in sight. It seemed pretty ambitious to Masaru. And Tohma seemed exceedingly ambitious about it when he was explaining it. It did seem just like the job for him. Still, Masaru thought he was getting a little too excited about some technical junk...

But the other issue at hand was the Demon Lords themselves.

Meanwhile, Yoshino and Ikuto would be put in charge of keeping the Demon Lords at bay. The Demon Lords were still free to enter Midgard at their own risk, after all. Now that they had seen first-hand the strength of the humans, they were sure to be more careful, but it left them no reason not to wreak havoc in other ways. Since the ability to transfer to the Asgard partition was in their hands now, they would have the chance to invade and make the pre-emptive strike. It was just that the threat was greater in the Demon Lords' home partition.

With the new turn of events, things were again changing drastically in DATS. Satsuma had made arrangements with Ministry of Confidentiality so that the producers of the television program wouldn't interfere, labeling the event as a "long-term, dangerous crisis" and almost literally shooing everyone involved with the program out of Tohma's mansion. Re-construction of the old headquarters that Omegamon had destroyed was to resume at a faster pace, and it would become a type of public affairs building, at least until the crisis was over. The TV program producers and broadcasters had plenty of fits with DATS by now, but at least they could be steered out of the way with the new public affairs building.

Masaru didn't really get all the details Tohma mentioned around that area, and before he knew it, he had started getting sleepy just listening to the blond.

" Masaru, wake up. I'm almost done, okay?"

" Mmm..." He was still dozing off...

...Until he felt Tohma's hand on him again. He jolted back awake, nearly moving his legs as a result. A short sling of pain ran through his body.

Tohma just pulled his hand back and looked at him somberly.

" Satsuma has ordered that none of us enter the Digital World as a single pair while the Demon Lords are still loose. We are always to be with at least one other Digimon with the power of the Ultimate when entering the Digital World, he says."

Masaru hesitated for a moment. " Who are you going with then?"

" I've asked Minervamon or BanchouLeomon to accompany me if it's ever necessary."

" ......."

To be honest with himself, the thought of Tohma going into the Digital World without him now wasn't settling very well with him. Sure, Tohma had been going to the Digital World on his own anyway, but with the challenge of the Demon Lords right there, waiting for him...

" I've offered Minervamon and BanchouLeomon rooms in my mansion to stay in while they're here in the real world. They're free to come and go as they please. Other than that, for the most part, I'll be working on the Digital Code instead of going after the Demon Lords anyway. The Digital Code is... kind of our name for the programming project."

" Ah..."

" Think of it as me saving some action for you, all right?"

That caught Masaru's attention.

" We're going to defeat the last of the Demon Lords together when I've completed the Digital Code and you've fully recovered. Sounds like a deal?" Tohma brought a hand up in a fist, waiting for the brunet's response.

Finally, a solid smile arose on Masaru's lips. " Hmph. You sure know how to motivate someone."

Masaru knocked his fist with Tohma's, still lying down on the bed. This quick physical contact, he didn't flinch to, but it hadn't even slipped through his mind in the first place. It was simply a natural action for them at the time.

And how thankful Masaru was to have that motivation. He looked at his heavily covered legs for a brief moment.

" How about we make it a race while we're at it then? Whether I'll complete the program first, or if you'll recover first..."

" Heh, a race?"

" Although since I'm your physician, that would be kind of strange, wouldn't it?" Tohma scratched his chin in contemplation. " I don't want to encourage you to rush your recovery to the point that it puts you in a more dangerous position."

" Hmph, you've definitely improved in being considerate, that's for sure. But I'll be fine. I don't want to make things worse for myself either."

" Good to hear. I'll leave you the rest of the day to digest everything. Your family will probably come visit you later in the day too, so I'll let you have your time with them too. See you later, Masaru."

" Yeah. Thanks, man."

Again, Tohma stopped momentarily at the hospital room door. " No need... I've done nothing to deserve it."

" Huh?"

Tohma left.

Masaru was sure he'd heard him clearly that time. Hadn't they made that other deal that they wouldn't keep playing those kind of games with each other? Not like Masaru really got what kind of game was going on, but...

It was kind of unfair when Tohma kept tossing it in at the end before Masaru could do anything about it. There was a limit to the amount of selfishness he could take.

No wait, he couldn't call that selfishness. It was anything but, really. Either way, it still pissed him off. Of course, Tohma himself probably didn't notice. Masaru had complimented him on being a more considerate person, but in some other ways, that genius nobleman still had a long way to go.

Yet, it didn't piss him off as much as it used to, before they had worked some things out. But it was still there. Something irritating him. And it only happened when he thought about Tohma. Only Tohma.

He'd figure it out some day. Right now, he had a lot of other things to think about first.

----  
Author blab

----

He sucks at this whole concept called forgetting. I don't blame him. 8|

And yes there's Midgard again (reference to old fic). It's not my fault that both Digimon and RO involve so much Norse mythology~ I totally need to play the PS2 Digimon Savers game someday since it has all the Demon Lords in it as part of the storyline, I hear. I played the sidequest with them in Digimon Story/World DS, but that's different. AND I WANT TO SEE THE STORY... AND RENAMON. But that's another issue.


	6. Chapter 6

The nightmares started that night. With everything that had happened in such a short span of time, it wasn't an unusual occurrence for him. Like the nightmare MetalPhantomon had cursed upon him, these nightmares always had something coming after him, something he'd be unable to shake off no matter what he tried to do.

Except now he'd be stuck in a monotone-patched space of nothingness, and out of the blue, hands would come at his neck. Very familiar hands...

Every night. The same hands. He'd struggle against them, trying to bring his fists up to punch them away, but he couldn't even bend his arms up in front of him or make a fist. In the meantime, he'd try to dodge and find his way out, but every time, they would get him without fail. It was a terrible struggle, and he hated it. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to wake up. At some point, he even half-consciously realized that he was having a nightmare, that his actual self was still safe and sound in the hospital bed and that his mind was just giving him a bad time. He would even remember that he needed the rest for his body to recover, and it would give him the willpower to continue through the nightmare.

The hands would grab his neck and squeeze. He wouldn't be able to do a thing to fight back.

And then he would wake up, shocked by the sudden change of scenery of the sun shining in from the window next to him. He'd realized he'd just had a nightmare, and the memories of the details that happened within would quickly fade away. He'd forget everything that went through his mind as the hands had him in their grip.

He'd only remember the hands.

----

Most of the time, he had nothing else to do but do exercises with his upper half, watch TV or attempt to do his summer homework. Yep, compulsory school sure had its fun times. His school had been notified of the incident and they had sent him supplementary workbook packets to do for the last few days he had missed. He wasn't sure how it was supposed to replace schooling, but it wasn't like he cared much in the first place. Even with the summer break coming up, with how much school Tohma had told him he'd be missing, he wouldn't be surprised if he had to be pulled back a year anyway.

He honestly didn't have much to think about that. School was school.

He had flipped the TV on at some point and some news was reeling by about DATS activity and the "hiatus" of their TV program. Now that he thought about it, he never did get to see the reactions from his classmates about being exposed as a member of DATS.

None of his classmates had ever been to his house before, so he knew they wouldn't be able to hound him there either, which relieved him since he couldn't be home to protect Mother and Chika. At least Agumon was with them, so he could leave most of his role to his yellow subordinate.

They wouldn't be hounded anywhere else either since the location of the temporary headquarters, also known as Tohma's mansion, was kept confidential from the public eye as well. People would be able to see some of the interior and all from the television program, but it wasn't like the general public would know it was the Norstein mansion from that.

The hospital was very close to the Norstein mansion and about the same distance from Masaru's house, so his family and Agumon visited every few days, bringing the things from Tohma's list with them.

" You're doing your chores around the house properly and all, right, Agumon?" Masaru would stop and ask. " Don't go troubling Mom too much."

" Yeah, yeah," Agumon would reply, and all of a sudden Masaru would feel like he was the nagging mother talking to an adolescent, and he'd frown. But he honestly wanted to make sure his family was doing all right without him in the house.

" I'm thoroughly making sure he is!" Chika would say proudly. " He's the one with nothing else to do, so of course he should be doing it properly."

Yoshino and Lalamon came to visit after a few days, bringing a basket of pudding snacks for Masaru to treat himself. She also came with the news that the Noguchi's would be moving into Masaru's neighborhood so that Ikuto could help out DATS and start going to the same school as Chika. His parents had naturally been concerned about Ikuto dealing with more Demon Lords, but Satsuma reassured them that Ikuto was just as capable as the other DATS members despite his age. They would be in need of more Digimon Tamers without Masaru on duty, since Digimon would still be wandering into the human world too, and Ikuto himself wanted to help out in that area. Satsuma's persuasion and Ikuto's motivation seemed to work on the parents, for their attitude slowly transformed from that of constant worry to a calm pride and joy in letting Ikuto participate. Seeing Ikuto get excited about being able to do what he did best always brought a smile to Masaru.

And Tohma would visit almost every day. On most days, he'd only stop by for a few minutes, saying he was just on his way to check up some documents in the hospital or to inspect Masaru's healing process, as his physician.

Sometimes BanchouLeomon and Minervamon would come with him too, and there'd be conversation about the progress on the Demon Lords. Those Demon Lords were rather slippery fellows, for even when the DATS crew went hunting for them in Asgard, they wouldn't show themselves. After what happened to Lucemon, it was no surprise for them to be taking precautions and go around hiding.

Towards the end of the third week, Tohma ran some tests in the hospital.

" I must say, your healing rate is mind-boggling... I'd say you should be ready to start the rehab soon."

" Seriously?! What was that about more than a month or whatever?"

" I was just saying that as an estimate..." Tohma said as he looked through a number of charts on the clipboard in his hands. " Of course I didn't assume that it would apply to you. The hard part starts AFTER healing, remember."

" Yeah, I know. I'm gonna be even FASTER in that part though."

" Masaru..."

A certain dark and magenta-haired woman peeked into the room. " Masaru, you awake? I've got more treats for you!"

" Sure am," Masaru replied quickly. " Yo, Yoshino."

" Ikuto's here too!" came a younger voice. Ikuto dived in with Falcomon following him.

" Hey, we're in a hospital. Don't run around like that!" Yoshino warned, tugging Ikuto by his neck like a cat. He was wearing a set of casual clothes that looked more "ordinary" than his usual Digital World outfit. He'd gotten rid of his face marks as well.

" Ikuto," Masaru said with a chuckle. " How's it like to be back with your parents?"

" Mommy cooks really good food!" was the first thing he answered. " And Daddy shows me all sorts of interesting gadgets. They're lots of fun!"

" The Noguchi's have already moved into your neighborhood. He'll be going to school soon," said Yoshino.

" School, eh... You excited, Ikuto?" Masaru asked as Ikuto went up to his bed.

" I don't know... I've never been to school."

" That's true. That'll be quite an experience, I bet. Just let Chika show you around." He ruffled Ikuto's hair a bit.

" Okay..." Ikuto looked a little unsure about dealing with Chika.

" There's another piece of news we've got for you," Yoshino said as she set a visiting gift down next to the bedside table. " Ikuto and I defeated two of the Demon Lords yesterday."

" Whoa, seriously?" Masaru said, his expression lifting visibly.

" Wow. Good work," Tohma said with honest admiration. " Which ones did you defeat?"

" Barbamon and Demon," Yoshino replied. " We were just wandering around Asgard and we came across this area covered in complete darkness... I swear everything in Asgard is just covered in darkness anyway. It must be some effect from the Demon Lords. So they were lurking over there, probably plotting some scheme to take over the world and junk. They seemed like those kind of characters at least."

Lalamon hovered over. " Don't they all? They're Demon Lords, after all."

" We got our Burst Modes!" The youngest one piped.

" Really? That's awesome, Ikuto!" Masaru said happily.

" You're not even a DATS member, yet you're right up in our ranks," Tohma added to the compliments.

" Hmm! Asgard not so scary either," Ikuto said, striking a haughty pose. " Just bunches of dark spaces."

" Is Asgard really like that?" Masaru wondered. " It's all like that cell we were in?"

Tohma put the clipboard down on another table in the room. " It's even less than the cell we were in. I suppose you'd get used to it after wandering through it for a few trips."

" Oh really... Hey, I thought of something recently," said Masaru. " Why aren't the Royal Knights or those 12 Onion Gods helping out?"

" 12 Olympian Gods."

" Yeah, whatever. It's their Digital World too, right? If the Royal Knights are anything like Omegamon, I bet they could take out the Demon Lords like no one's business. Not that I mind you guys saving the action for me, but..."

Tohma again stepped in with the explanation. " The Royal Knights serve Yggdrasil, and at times like this, Yggdrasil goes into observation mode, assuming the rest of the Digimon will take care of things. They won't bother doing anything until they see a direct threat to the Digital World. Or so Minervamon tells me."

" That's... kind of lazy."

" And the Olympian Gods... according to Minervamon, she hasn't met the other ones since the sealing. She doesn't know where to find them in the Digital World. Mercurimon was the only one she was close to."

The young genius pursed his lips, upset expression plastered on his face as he finished.

" ......"

Yoshino stepped in to break the silence. " All right, all right. Masaru, enjoy the pudding I brought you today, okay? I need to take Ikuto back with me, so we'll be going now. It was good seeing you!"

" Weh, already?" Masaru looked slightly forlorn at their quick warning of departure.

" Yeah, Mommy and Daddy go treat Yoshino for lunch at our new place. Bye bye, Masaru!"

" Get better soon!" Falcomon and Lalamon cheered.

They were out of the room as quickly as they came in.

Tohma sighed with a smile. " I really wonder if he'll be okay in school when he's like that at his age."

" Huh, with Ikuto? I don't notice anything particularly not okay."

" It's mostly his grammar skills, Masaru. And although Minervamon learned to read and write human languages, Ikuto hasn't, and he hasn't even been exposed to that much of human culture yet. Especially in Japan."

" Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine. I mean look at me, I've got fifteen years in Japan on him and I STILL can't read much out of the newspapers outside the sports section!"

Tohma sighed again. " I hate to say this, but I think he's at least got far better intuition than you for certain things."

Masaru was about to interject, but Tohma continued. " I think it's a result of growing up in the Digital World where one would have to survive without human-refined technology. Hmph, you got rid of my worries about him pretty quickly."

" Growing up in the Digital World, eh..." Masaru reiterated. " How's working with Minervamon? You've been mentioning her an awful lot."

" Oh, have I? Well, as a Digimon who's lived through ancient times, she has a lot of knowledge that could be useful for my research. That could be why I find her interesting."

Masaru thought Minervamon was interesting and all too, but something felt unsettling about it all.

" Masaru, it's written all over your face. I know how much you want to get back into the battlefield, but there's no use in getting jealous of Minervamon for it."

True, he was envious of Minervamon for getting action, but that was hardly what was gripping him... In various senses of the word.

But he was injured, after all. Even if he wanted in on the action, there was nothing he could do about it now except hurry up and get better.

Masaru pushed himself up with his arms to bend forward a bit. " I'm gonna start moving around tomorrow."

" What? But you're still healing."

" You said I could start rehab soon, didn't you?"

" I meant soon as in a few more days. If you do something harmful while your bones are still healing, you'll just make things worse for yourself."

" ......"

" ...If you insist, at least make sure I'm there to supervise you when you start. You'll always need someone there with you for this to start off, since it's both of your legs that need work."

" Right, right. I'll do that, then," Masaru said in a mild surrender, leaning back onto the bed.

But that was all Tohma needed to hear. " Good. I'll be back tomorrow then. Don't overdo yourself, okay?"

" Yeah, yeah."

Tohma gave him a light smile before leaving. Masaru returned it, but went back to a sullen face as he found himself alone again.

Yeah. Until he could step out together with his comrades again...

----

As he had said, Masaru started moving his legs the next day when Tohma arrived. Or at least he tried to. Even with Tohma watching over him, he couldn't even get his knees to bend no matter how much he willed himself past the pain.

" It really is too early for this, Masaru. Even for you," Tohma said after several failed attempts, sitting back down on the seat next to the bed. " Give it a rest and try another day."

" I just can't settle down like this... I gotta MOVE!!" Masaru said with utter dissatisfaction. He rolled his hands into fists and started punching thin air as much as his upper half would let him.

" Now that I think of it, you were like this at the end of the third week after we defeated Belphemon too..." Tohma observed, tilting back a little to avoid the punches. " It's rather unfortunate how you keep running through this string of bad luck."

" You're telling me." Masaru said pointedly, remembering how he had made his escape into Tohma's room and how things had snowballed from there. He stopped punching. " Ah, that's right. I left my bike at your place way back then."

" Oh, you don't have to worry about that. It's secured in our storage area. Do you want me to have it sent back to your house?"

" Naw, don't bother. It'll give me an excuse to come back to your place so we can finish that sleepover."

Tohma froze for a moment. Then he calmly looked at Masaru in a tacit agreement, then brought the subject back. " You should have seen now that it's too early to start moving around on those legs. Don't try it again for another few days, got it? I think by then, you'll be ready."

" Fine."

Tohma started heading for the doorway, this time pausing on his own, as if inviting Masaru to ask something.

So he took him up for the invitation.

" Tohma, why is it YOU who's in charge of my recovery? Couldn't someone else be doing this?"

Tohma hesitated to answer. " Do you think I'm not capable?"

" That's not it... I mean aren't you busy working on that Digital Code thing?"

" Not to be boastful or anything, but it'd be the most efficient to bring you back to full condition if I'm supervising you. Satsuma recommended it as well. It's for the benefit of DATS, since you're a valuable team member. That's all there is to it. I'll see you later."

' A valuable team member, is it,' Masaru repeated in his mind, humbly agreeing, yet at the same time, unconvinced. He could tell Tohma wasn't giving him a full answer still, but until he could sort out his own thoughts, he was going to let Tohma go without further badgering.

" Yeah. See you later."

He had to admit, he felt quite at ease with Tohma checking up on him. He was getting his meals from the Norstein residence as well, so he was definitely getting all the nutrition he needed for healing properly.

And while Masaru was paying close attention to maintaining his other physical abilities by himself, he felt more assured when someone as close to him as Tohma came by. At all other times, he'd be surrounded by the older women and men who worked in the hospital. While they were all kind and helpful people, they strictly kept up the barrier between patient and hospital worker. He even wondered if he did something to scare them... Then again, they all worked under DATS, so he had seen some of them before his incident. Maybe he had some kind of reputation from back then? He wasn't even doing anything that would cause them trouble. For himself, he was being extremely obedient and cooperative with them.

Tohma was the only one he'd argue with... Because Tohma had his thoughts clear cut and Masaru's methods didn't always agree with his. Because Tohma was willing to argue back. Because Tohma was willing to fight for what he believed in.

Because Tohma was there to support him...

...Eh?

----

That night, his nightmares started to transform. Instead of an empty, monotone void, he'd find himself in a deep valley, sort of like the one in his MetalPhantomon dream with the Numemon. For a while, the hands would still be coming after his neck, and he would still be unable to fight back, but if he managed to avoid them long enough, the hands would start doing different things...

They'd start to shove him around, push, pull, tug... Eventually, it would seem like the hands were starting to get a personality of their own as if they were enjoying bullying Masaru in various ways. Yet still, Masaru was unable to fight back, and enduring the teasing grew more stressful by the moment.

But when it had come to that point, he'd stop reacting at all. Again, his consciousness would arise that he was having a nightmare, and regardless of what he did, his actual self wouldn't be any different as soon as he woke up. So he'd stop bothering with the hands and just lay back, practically going to sleep in his own dream.

And then the hands would eventually stop and leave him alone.

----

His rehab began regularly a few days later, just like Tohma said. He could move his legs again. Even if it still hurt, even if he was still doing slow, basic movements, it was such a gratifying feeling for him.

In order to recover faster, Masaru was asked to stay at the hospital until he had restored most of his leg functions. Supposedly, his right leg would take longer to recover than his left since his left had less damage, but either way, he was told he wouldn't walk on his own for a long time. That of course didn't matter to him, for he set his own guidelines and did slow movement exercises even when someone wasn't there to supervise him. He didn't have a knack for knowing when he was tired, but he DID have a knack for knowing what was out of his direct movement limits, so he kept going at it way more than the average person.

And with Tohma arranging his "super-condensed" therapy schedule, he was doing exercises almost the entire time he was awake. Part of it was just out of pure gratitude for being able to move his legs again, but most of it was his motivation to get back into action with DATS. To fight with Agumon as his partner, to fight with Tohma as his teammate...

He laughed when he came to this realization, since it was just like his motivation for defeating Kurata, except now he was in a completely different situation. And he knew Tohma was in full-support of him this time. Even though there was something odd going on below the surface between them that he still didn't get, Tohma was there for him. That's what mattered to him most.

He had a wheelchair to let him move locations on his own, but he couldn't spend so much time on it before the pain in his legs became so unbearable that he had to go back on the bed to keep them elevated. He only used painkillers to help him go to sleep, so whenever he was awake, he'd just pull through with solid manly guts. Yep.

A week or so into the rehab, his battle-comrade-turned-physician came into the hospital room with BanchouLeomon following after him. Masaru was on his wheelchair when he greeted them.

BanchouLeomon gave Masaru a solid look as the other returned the gaze upwards from his wheelchair, as if something about his appearance had brought a particular thought to the Digimon.

" How's the recovery progressing?" BanchouLeomon asked.

Masaru relayed his story to the banchou while the other listened with his usual, intent gaze. Tohma wrote notes for the other nurses on his clipboard in the meanwhile, passively eavesdropping on the brunet's talk.

" Of course, you've been moving around on your own without supervision, haven't you," Tohma said when the brunet finished.

Masaru kept his lips shut after letting out the tiniest "geh."

" Well, I've been factoring that into your rehab schedule already, so I'm not worried about that," Tohma noted, barely lifting an eyebrow as he continued to write on his clipboard. " In fact, keep it up. You're doing fine."

Masaru blinked a few times, surprised at hearing the compliment.

" Mm, indeed, keep up the pace," BanchouLeomon said with a nod. " And then come with us to the final battle and show me your Burst Digisoul with your renewed strength."

The Digimon placed one of his massive, lion-like hands on Masaru's head as a gesture of support. It was strange... the only ones BanchouLeomon ever bothered to get close to were him and Minervamon. He'd seen him and Minervamon, but he could easily sense the natural intent of that gesture since those two had been friends for so long. Now that BanchouLeomon had his hand on his head, he wasn't sure what to make of it.

Out of the blue, BanchouLeomon brushed his thumb over Masaru's forehead, pushing away some of his bangs momentarily. Masaru blinked with a questioning grunt.

" This scar..." BanchouLeomon said quietly.

" Oh, yeah." Masaru tilted so that Tohma could see it too. There was a small line of skin lighter than the rest at the very top of his forehead, normally hidden by his bangs. " I got this scar from falling off the monkey bars when I was little."

" Hmm." BanchouLeomon pulled his hand back to cross his arms. He turned to the blond next to him. " Tohma, it's about time for you to know. I have some clues you can use in producing the Digital Code when we get back to the DATS building."

" Clues...?"

The banchou only bid farewell to Masaru as he left the room.

Tohma looked at Masaru for any indication.

" Guess you'll find out when you head over there. You might actually get ahead on that Digital Code before I finish recovering," Masaru said with a grin.

Tohma put the clipboard with the finished papers on the desk next to the door, then went up to Masaru's wheelchair. He bent down and brought a hand to the brunet's forehead, just where BanchouLeomon had been brushing against earlier.

Masaru flinched.

......

He didn't even mean to. He... had no reason to. And why was it just with Tohma?!

Tohma pulled his hand back. " I have a feeling that BanchouLeomon's 'clue' is something big. He mentioned it to me earlier, but he wouldn't go into details... until now. Depending on what this clue is, I might be tied up working with it, so I might not see you for a while... I'll still be arranging your rehab schedule, but I won't have time to visit. Think you'll be okay?"

" Yeah, I'll be fine." He knew Tohma had seen him flinch and was feeling remorse from it, which made Masaru curse to himself. " Don't... push yourself too much."

Yet Tohma still gave him a guileless look, one of firm confidence. " Who do you think I am?"

That supposedly rhetorical question stood out to Masaru like a black sheep. In one aspect, he could answer with no doubts. In another aspect, he'd be led by countless thoughts that would repeat in his head like a lame paradox. And just getting asked like that, he didn't feel he understood his own situation enough to answer even if he had to.

" And the same goes for you," Tohma continued for him. " When I'm done, I'll help you with some of the exercises myself instead of just planning out your schedule. How's that sound."

Masaru looked at him, caught too distraught to say anything.

" ...Masaru."

" Ah?"

The brunet snapped out of his little daze and stared back at Tohma. Tohma simply stared back for a moment.

" ...No, it's nothing. Do your best with the rehab, all right?"

He went to reach out with his hand again, but stopped before Masaru could even react. Yet Masaru still noticed when Tohma pulled back.

With that, the blond stood up and left after bidding his usual farewell.

Masaru watched the doorway for a while, still feeling lost. Tohma was doing so much for him, yet he couldn't get rid of his own trifling fears of the past? How ridiculous was that? He'd never accept himself like this, and he knew he had to start doing something about it as soon as possible.

----

The hands in his dreams, after they had stopped poking at him out of boredom, would settle on his shoulders and not move. Of course, it weirded him out even in his own dream to have just HANDS there, but nonetheless it was relieving that they weren't agitating him anymore. He'd pass through his nights peacefully.

He'd been naturally forgetting the details in his nightmares-turned-into-dreams not long after waking up, only remembering that the hands had been there and they'd given him a rough time before settling down.

But the latest few dreams would just keep popping back into his mind throughout his waking day.

He'd suddenly be running around the valleys, looking for a way out. Gone were the nights when he'd just peacefully lie still in the valley. He couldn't stand still, and he wanted out, but he couldn't find his way. He could move his arms freely again, yet even then he wasn't finding a way out. He'd climb the sides only to find himself in another valley. It was an endless abyss...

Until at last he would come across a door with a round doorknob... hovering right there in the sky, out of his reach. No matter how much he jumped and lunged himself at the door, he couldn't reach the knob.

And he'd be completely alone, no hands in sight.

----

Maybe he just had to do the opposite, even if it meant forcing himself a little. Rather than cringe back from his fears, he should confront them. He resolved to keep himself more open to Tohma the next time they'd see each other, perhaps even get in his face some to chase out any remaining desires of avoidance that was getting in his way. Yeah, that sounded more like him anyway. With his broken-down condition, he hadn't been getting in the mood to argue with Tohma like he used to. At least he was pretty sure that was the reason for it. Whatever it was, he wasn't going to let it get in the way of holding up to his manliness any longer.

He had plenty of time to prepare himself for, as weeks went by without Tohma coming to his hospital room. He'd see Tohma walk by here and there on occasional days, but he would obviously be busy with something else since the young doctor never even stopped by to wave from the windows.

Masaru had managed to walk on his own after a long slough of failed effort, except he would soon have to sit back down from the pain he was getting from putting pressure on his ankles. He'd quickly grow frustrated at himself for succumbing to the pain and try walking again on his own, but one of the nurses would eventually catch him and stop him.

It was a grueling few weeks, just working on getting his basic leg functions back and diminishing the pain. His mother, Chika and Agumon would still visit normally too, although he wouldn't have much of anything new to say to them whenever they did. He was fed up with the constant pain he was in, but his manly pride wouldn't let him complain about it, and everyone around him revered him for that at least. It was just enough of a confidence boost to keep him going on his road to recovery.

It just sucked that the last time he'd gotten a chance to deal with Tohma, he'd gone off and acted like such a coward against his own will...

Well, he wasn't so sure about Tohma either, for that matter. Whenever he saw Tohma come by, it'd be during a visit from someone else. So even if Masaru perchance saw Tohma walk by, his visitors would be occupying his attention. Of course, he could just forget them and start physically chasing after the blond, but at what cost for his weak legs? He at least wanted to save himself the embarrassment of the possibility of collapsing while chasing after another guy his age in a hospital.

In fact, even BanchouLeomon and Minervamon would visit him while Tohma passed by in the background. They'd tell him about the other things going on at DATS, particularly with Yoshino and Ikuto as they continued excavating Asgard in search of the Demon Lords. And with no luck either, since they hadn't even gotten close to encountering any of the other Demon Lords since their previous victory.

Masaru looked a little forlorn when he heard the news, but BanchouLeomon said it was nothing to worry about.

" We'll find them in time for you to come back. We're starting to get clues about how they go about hiding in Asgard... it's only a matter of time when we'll have them completely figured out," BanchouLeomon informed him. " You just concentrate on your rehab."

" Hey, BanchouLeomon... what exactly was the clue you told Tohma about?" Masaru looked at the banchou with all seriousness in mind.

However, the lion man merely shifted the leaf in his mouth to the other side of his face.

" You wouldn't understand even if I told you. I suggest you ask Tohma himself about how he's handling things."

" Well, I'd like to, but he hasn't come in ever since you told him."

" Hmm? That's unusual."

" Yeah..."

BanchouLeomon gave Masaru a long stare.

Minervamon cocked her head, not completely sure what was going on. " He does seem a little off-kilter lately. Or is he ALWAYS that boring? I dunno how you deal with him, kid."

Masaru jerked his head slightly. Tohma, boring? But he always felt on edge whenever he was around... " He's a good fighter, you know. Not as good as me, of course, but he's good."

" Heh, really? But I've already got BanchouLeomon to spar with, so I'm not really interested in trying him out."

" Hmph, I'd sure like a chance to spar ANYONE right now..."

Minervamon frowned with pure guilt. " Sorry..."

" No, it's fine. It's not your fault."

" But..."

" I should've been stronger. If I'd been stronger, I could've broken out of the Demon Lord's control like Tohma had and this wouldn't have happened to me."

The realization sunk in further. If Tohma hadn't broken out of the control on his own, if he hadn't brought out his Burst Mode to defeat Lilithmon... he probably would've choked Masaru to death. Masaru wouldn't even have his life spared.

" If Tohma thinks he's undeserving of any thanks for that incident, what does that make ME who couldn't break out of the control at all..." he said to himself, gritting his teeth.

He suddenly felt a heavy gaze from BanchouLeomon, heavier than anything he had noticed before.

" That Tohma really is a strong one, isn't he," the banchou said quietly, yet solidly.

" ...Yeah," Masaru replied, a little awed that the Digimon was making such considerate remarks towards another human besides himself for once.

Masaru blinked some. Now that he thought about it, it even seemed like BanchouLeomon had a different personality when he dealt with Masaru and his comrades compared to how he interacted with Minervamon. It was a subtle, subtle difference, but even Masaru was beginning to sense something.

He suddenly felt a hand on his head again and he jerked in surprise. It was BanchouLeomon.

BanchouLeomon stood up and went to the doorway to make his departure. " I'll see you again, Masaru. Come on, Minervamon. I've got one more thing for Tohma."

----

It'd been about two months since he was admitted into the hospital.

It was nighttime, when the level of activity in his part of the hospital simmered down, yet was still alive with hospital workers roaming the hallways.

Tohma came into view in the window, walking with his white lab coat on and with a clipboard in hand as usual. But this time, instead of passing by as he usually did, he walked into Masaru's room.

Masaru blinked in surprise from his wheelchair. Then he gave a quick wave with his elbow and hand, still looking a little bewildered.

Tohma just stared at him. Something was definitely different about him, as if he had just heard some shocking news. No, it was even more than that. Masaru could readily tell that things were piling up on the blond and he hadn't even gotten a chance to sort through most of it.

" Had a long day?" Masaru started. ' More like a long month?'

At first, it seemed Tohma didn't even register the question. Then he shook his head slightly, took a deep breath, and took a seat next to Masaru sitting on his wheelchair. He set his clipboard down on the desk nearby, took another deep breath, then finally answered. " More like a long month."

Masaru chuckled. So for once they were thinking on the same lines. This was a good start.

" Heh, yeah, you haven't come in since then. Did BanchouLeomon give you that much of a good clue that you couldn't even stop by and say hello once in a while?"

Tohma's eyes widened and his mouth hung open as he looked off to one side. That... was sort of a strange reaction.

" Did something bad happen?" Masaru asked.

" N... No, it's the opposite, really," Tohma said as he snapped himself out of his mini-daze. " Progress on the Digital Code is essentially complete. We've sealed up the Demon Lords that we've defeated already... All that's left are the three that we haven't found yet. The Digital Code as it is right now is only guaranteed to work when they're Digieggs, but as Ultimate levels, their amount of data would likely be incompatible with the Code, so we still have to defeat them once we find them."

" Whoa, you finished the code thing? So that means you won our competition, doesn't it. Hmph, at least I didn't bet anything this time," Masaru said with a sarcastic frown. " Seriously man, that's awesome."

Tohma stared at him again, still looking as if his mind wasn't really in the room. Masaru was hoping the blond would look a little happier than he did right now. ' Be happy, smile, or SOMETHING!' he kept thinking.

So he punched the doctor's gut. Just enough to jolt him. And after a whole month, it was quite satisfying.

Tohma responded rather vocally. That and he almost fell off his chair since he had been sitting to one side of it, but he managed to regain his balance at the last moment.

" Dude, Tohma. Are you really okay?"

" Y-Yeah," Tohma replied with some nervousness. " Sorry, it's just that... I feel like I've discovered a lot of things today."

" Discovered? You mean for finishing the Digital Code?"

" Well, that's one, yes. And even more, but I could just be thinking too far into it... I haven't told you yet..."

Tohma repositioned himself on the chair to make sure he was sitting properly this time. " And something else... Before coming here, I was on the phone with my father to tell him the news about the Digital Code."

" Your father..." Masaru repeated, faintly conjuring up the image of the brief moment when he had seen the older Norstein months back. " I remember seeing him once. What, is he involved with the Digimon like my dad?"

Again, Tohma made a sudden, gaping expression. But he soon pulled himself together and responded.

" No, he isn't involved with the Digimon... The reason why I got myself so deeply involved with the Digital Code was because establishing the biochemical link between humans and Digimon could lead to the discovery of a cure for a certain human disease that's currently incurable. And this disease... is what my younger sister is afflicted with."

Masaru shifted back. " Younger sister?"

" You might've seen her before she went back to Austria. She's in a wheelchair."

" Oh, her... Yeah, I remember." Masaru took his gaze off for a moment to get some time to think. Mostly, ' Whoa, he had a little sister?! That was her? I had no idea... Then again, Tohma doesn't seem to have any other family living with him here. They all went back to Austria then? And Tohma's still here? Wha...'

He'd never thought that far about Tohma's family situation before. It'd almost gotten to the point where he thought it just didn't exist, because Tohma seemed so PERFECT that it wouldn't make a difference whether he had a family or not, as odd as that thought was to him now.

Wait, that meant he'd had so much extra motivation because he was out looking for a cure for his younger sister? No wonder... Actually, for Tohma to be so dedicated for his family's sake, Masaru found himself holding a renewed sense of respect for the aristocrat.

" So this is all for her..." Masaru said with a subdued tone. " And here I'd thought you were just some perfect genius prince with a soft spot for Digimon all this time, but there's a lot more to you than you make yourself out to be."

Tohma cleared his throat. " A soft spot for Digimon...?"

" Isn't it true? That's why we struggled together against Belphemon and all, right? It was for the sake of the Digimon. And then you and Gaomon always have this odd, silent relationship thing going on... he's with you right now in the Digivice, isn't he?"

" Mm, well yes, right now he is since it's nighttime. He does sometimes stay at DATS when I visit here during the daytime, you know. But why..."

" And Minervamon..."

Masaru didn't even know what the heck he was saying. It really didn't have to concern him, yet...

" Masaru, what..."

" Ack, that's not what I'm trying to say anyway!" Masaru raised his voice. " I'm saying... that it's awesome... It's awesome that you're doing this for your sister and everything. Seriously, that's being a man. Hey, you should totally introduce her to Chika when she's better. They're around the same age, right?"

" I think Relena's a little younger, but they're close. Yeah, I'll introduce her."

" Cool!" Masaru said, perhaps with too much vigor. " Sorry, I don't know what I was talking about earlier... It's just hard for me to admit this stuff, yeah? I mean, I'm happy for you, just don't forget that I'M the one who's going to bust up that last Demon Lord when the time comes, so... don't forget... that I'm here..."

Huh? Now he really didn't understand where he was going...

And Tohma's confused look was matching his thoughts. " Masaru, I thought I was following you in this conversation, but you just lost me again. Why do you think I'm visiting you right now?"

Masaru scratched the back of his head sheepishly, fishing for words. " Well, that is... err... you said you were going to do the actual rehab exercises or such with me after you finished the Digital Code, right?"

" Yes, I do remember saying that, and I intend to stay with that plan."

" Then..." Masaru found his face heating up a little when he couldn't find another way to say it. " Make sure you don't go around thinking about other things and losing your focus when you're with me, got it? I know your sister's important, and I appreciate that, I really do. But if your mind's not with me when it counts... you'll... you'll mess me up too."

Tohma raised his eyebrows. And then a single laugh erupted from his throat. Followed by several more. Masaru just watched him as he finished laughing. " Were you... worried that I'd be so distracted that I'd be a hindrance to your rehab sessions? Sorry, but I still have full confidence that you'll have the fastest recovery ever for someone with your injuries. The pain while you're walking has started to diminish already, right?"

" Yeah..." Masaru answered blankly, his mind still caught with the other things Tohma said.

" Then you're progressing smoothly. That's good," Tohma said with a smile. " Really, the way you think sometimes... It's still beyond me."

" Eheheheh..." Normally, he'd join in on the haughty act, but he was honestly still confused. Yeah, he was "worried" that something might be up with Tohma that would affect his rehab, but he wasn't "worried" just for THAT...

Huh? The way he thought was confusing for himself at times like this, but he was so close to getting something now. And he was determined to figure it out.

After all, even Tohma still had difficulty reading him. Tohma, the genius? True, he knew they'd been like that when they first knew each other, but they'd been around each other long enough that Masaru thought Tohma would be able to read him better by now. Even just now, Tohma had only hit part of Masaru's reason for his concern. But then, Masaru didn't know his reason himself. He just knew that Tohma didn't know either.

Blargh. He was getting lost in his thought process again. This wasn't how he did things. Didn't he resolve not to do things like this anymore?

" Tohma, there's something I don't get still."

" ......"

" Hey, Tohma."

Masaru slowly stood up from his wheelchair, startling Tohma slightly. But the blond was even more startled when Masaru put his fist in front of him, right up in his face.

" ...?"

" Do me a favor. Stand up and knock your fist against mine here. We'll make it an official pact, all right? We gotta concentrate on sealing up those Demon Lords, and I'm gonna be there when it happens."

" ......"

Yes, he knew it was an odd thing, asking outright. But he had to make sure, and this was the one way he knew always worked for him. Not like he was a palm reader or anything of that sort, but if there was only one thing about himself that he had confidence in, it was this fist he had in front of them. If Tohma wasn't going to tell him directly or give him explanations, he could at least get his own sense of what was going on.

After a wait of reluctance and suspicion, Tohma stood up. He looked Masaru straight in the eye, then at the fist, off to the side, then back at Masaru's eyes, each time apparently in another thought. But Tohma could tell just by looking at how serious Masaru was being. He brought his fist up--his left hand for Masaru's right, then stopped.

" This isn't some sort of substitute for having a boxing match in your imagination, is it?" Tohma asked off-handedly.

" Haa? What the heck gives you THAT idea? Just for that, I'm totally going to sock you a good one when I recover. We'll have a REAL boxing match and I'll TAKE YOU DOWN. But for now, I just need a little knock here."

" Are you sure?" Tohma asked quietly before moving his fist. " You aren't going to flinch, are you?"

Masaru felt something in him hollow out a smidgen. He quickly passed it off as his legs complaining, and he stood with more pride. " I won't. There's no reason for me to."

Tohma smiled again at the answer. Then all of a sudden, his eyelashes closed over his eyes just so that his downward gaze made his facial appearance seem surreal somehow, as if he were on the brink of his eyes watering up, yet he was holding even that back.

The silence reverberated throughout the room, enhanced by the lack of activity in the rest of the hospital.

Fist hit fist. Tohma's hit Masaru's in just a way that their knuckles overlapped each other, and a crisp sound of flesh on bone hitting against flesh on bone echoed through the room.

Neither of them pulled their fists back after the sound fell far back into the silence.

Tohma had once mentioned that Masaru's fists rang in people's hearts.

With their fists connected, it was almost as if Masaru could sense Tohma's heart.

But it was filled with such complicated feelings... Feelings of joy and pain at the same time. Feelings of complication itself.

It seemed neither of them wanted to pull back.

" Masaru..."

He could feel it in his chest, a hint of elation whenever Tohma said his name. This was...

The fighter felt blood rise up his cheeks. Their fists were still connected, practically leaning into each other to stay up.

Apparently, that blood rose so much that he didn't realize his legs had given in until he started seeing the ceiling as he fell back.

In that instant, Tohma grabbed Masaru's right wrist and brought his other arm around Masaru to keep him from collapsing. Masaru felt pain sear through his legs as he recovered his balance, but he quickly forgot about it when he saw Tohma's face right in front of him, staring back at him.

Normally, that would be the moment for Tohma to ask if Masaru was okay, but neither ended up saying anything. They just stared...

Ah. He hadn't seen Tohma this close for over a month. The nobleman's familiar scent was still there. There was a certain fatigue in those crystal blue eyes, unbefitting of his age, yet they held a sort of entrancing effect on Masaru. Maybe it had something to do with how they drooped in just the way that when Tohma stared at him, they seemed to be telling him that everything would be all right and nothing else mattered, and he believed it...

At the sensation of the tip of their noses brushing lightly against each other, Masaru snapped to attention. He felt the heat of Tohma's breath blow over his partially-open lips, and his eyes widened. Just what were they...

Tohma suddenly backed off, leading Masaru staggering back to his wheelchair.

But the blond's movements were obviously rushed. " I'll... be back tomorrow to start the rehab. Rest well tonight, Masaru. ...Good night." he said quickly. He walked through the doors and was out before Masaru could even see him off.

Masaru found himself breathing heavily all of a sudden. It seemed he had been holding his breath for some time.

They had only connected fists, but he'd actually gotten a chance to think through the action this time until that moment afterwards. He had recognized it as clear as it could be. It couldn't be anything else.

Despite Tohma claiming that he cherished their friendship, Masaru could tell...

Tohma wanted something more than friendship with him.

He realized one other thing for certain. He... was getting some kind of rush feelings himself.

The corner of his lips twitched. He could almost feel the heat of Tohma's breath on them still. They had barely been a breath away from... from...

Of all things he thought he had been missing from Tohma... no matter how much he tried to forget it all, he still wanted to know. No matter how much he tried to reverse things, they only kept coming back and confusing him. But now he knew exactly what was coming back to him...

Everything that had been going on with Tohma always holding back on him was for this?

----

Author blab

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........Onion Knight!!


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning when Tohma came in, he said he had some last-minute things to do back at DATS and that he would return in the late afternoon to start their rehab. Which worked out just fine for Masaru, since Yoshino, Ikuto and their Digimon made a surprise visit for lunch to give him company in the meantime. They had brought along Agumon with them as well. They had just heard about Tohma finishing the Digital Code and they were hoping to have a small celebration with him and Masaru in his hospital room.

" What the heck is that Tohma doing after all that frenzy work he's done for the past month? Just when I put all this effort into making food for everyone... This is one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences, you know? Yeah, I got a pay raise so I'm more willing to do these, but what gives him for skipping out?" Yoshino said with some bitterness as she went around serving everyone's portions. Ikuto, Falcomon and Agumon sat around on some stools while Lalamon settled on one of the taller tables to stay on eye level with everyone.

" How's living here, by the way?" Yoshino asked.

Masaru brought out his wheelchair tray for Yoshino to put his food on it. " ...Barely managing. This place makes me MISS going to school. Or I'd even want to run around in Asgard even though you said it's nothing but gloomy stuff. It'd still be better than being stuck like this all the time."

" That sounds pretty darn gloomy," Yoshino sympathized.

The others started chowing down on their lunches, which consisted of Yoshino's specialty onigiri, fruit cups, and her own blend of tamagoyaki. They weren't like Sayuri's, but they had their own homemade taste with just the right touch of tomatoes and green peppers inside. Everyone exploded in happiness at the taste, which Yoshino sucked in with justified pride.

" Well, I guess it's not THAT bad here. There's a park nearby where I can stretch out my legs when I want to. It almost feels like I'm living in some hotel with room service since they let me in and out whenever I want. But then... someone always has to be around supervising me when I go out."

" Masaru, no freedom..." Ikuto said sadly, the end of his chopsticks still in his mouth as he held them.

Agumon gave him an equally sad look, and Masaru couldn't help but grin at them. Of course, he wasn't up to telling them about the times he snuck out without supervision.

" I'll be okay," he said, patting the both of their heads at the same time.

" I would think so, with Tohma taking care of you and everything," Yoshino commented.

The others continued with some conversation. Agumon caught up the others with some house tales about Chika having too much time to bug him. Not only that, but she was dragging Ikuto around now that he was in the neighborhood as well. Unbeknownst to the others, Masaru had this daydreaming look on his face and he seemed to be paying only half attention.

Masaru watched Yoshino as the woman in the pink camisole plopped a piece of tamagoyaki into her mouth. " Hey Yoshino..."

" Hmm?"

He made a simple tilt of the head in her direction. " ...Is Tohma in love with me?"

The short-haired girl nearly spit out her food as she threw her upper half forward in her seat in surprise.

" Hoooooly..." she thumped her chest a few times, then sat back to regain her composure. " Masaru, there's a little thing called TIMING when you ask that kind of a question..."

" Err, sorry, I wasn't thinking about that. I just figured you'd have some better insight on this..."

Yoshino put her chopsticks down and looked at the brunet, but didn't say anything, as if taking her time to figure out the situation. Ikuto and the other Digimon looked at her and Masaru, not seeming to follow what just happened as they continued to eat.

And then Yoshino started clapping. Literally, she was clapping her hands like one would do at the end of a good performance.

" Congratulations, I guess you've finally figured it out," she said as she picked her chopsticks back up and continued eating calmly.

" Haa?"

" I almost thought you'd NEVER figure it out, especially with what's happened to you recently."

" Are you saying that... that... wait, he really IS then?" Masaru sputtered. " B-But I'm..."

" A man, yuh-huh," Yoshino said to complete his thought. " Do you really think that makes a difference here? Well, I guess it does, but that's not what's keeping Tohma from doing anything at this point."

" What do you mean 'at this point?'"

" Do you know how long this has been going on?" Yoshino asked, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

" ...I guess I noticed something was going on since we found ElDoradimon."

The older woman blinked in surprise. " That long ago, and NOW you finally ask?"

" Well, there were situations. I just finished figuring out what it was recently."

" You boys..." Yoshino said with a sigh.

" Yoshino knew long before we met ElDoradimon!" Lalamon chimed in. " We even had a bet back then on how long it'd take for you to notice."

" ........" A hollow, dour hum came from Masaru.

" A bet? So who won?" Agumon said, joining in the conversation even though he obviously didn't know what was going on.

" I don't remember anymore... So much has happened since then," Yoshino said, pondering.

" Oh well," Lalamon said casually, shrugging as much as the others could tell with her little green shoulders. " I think we both lost anyway."

" Okay, fine, I get it!!" Masaru said testily. " So I'm slow. But I figured it out eventually at least, didn't I? And how come YOU guys are so sure about this in the first place?!"

" Because we've been around you two long enough to see it," came Yoshino's honest answer. " We haven't as of late, but even back then, it was pretty apparent to us, especially when we were in the Digital World. Buuuut of course I knew you guys wouldn't get each other's feelings so easily, so we were just amusing ourselves in the meantime. Sorry we didn't say anything. We meant no harm!"

Masaru puffed out an air of frustration. He couldn't blame them for anything, but it still ticked him off a little that he couldn't pinpoint what was going on for so long when they had it all figured it out for ages.

" So what are you going to do about it? You're free to consult now that it's out in the open among us."

" Wait, WHAT's out in the open? What've you guys been talking about?" Agumon finally asked.

" I don't think you'd understand anyway, Agumon," Lalamon replied. " This is just one of those things you learn about growing up with humans or spending too many years with them."

" Huh? What's that supposed to mean?!"

" I'm just saying..."

While the two Digimon bickered in the background, Ikuto and Falcomon turned their heads, slightly confused, then continued eating without any more care for the conversation.

Masaru looked down at his food, and suddenly even the purple grapes seemed to be mocking his dullheadedness. " I don't know what I'm going to do about it just yet."

" I think you already know, but Tohma intends to keep the relationship between you two as it is, probably until the end of time, unless you do something about it. What do you think of that?"

" Yeah, I do know that. I don't even know what to think of it though..." Masaru admitted.

The thought of last night's little "incident" came to his mind.

" At times, it grates on my nerves, but other times, I'm okay with it..."

" Only 'okay with it?' That sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth for someone like you. You're really 'okay' with seeing him go on his entire life without ever getting a response?" Yoshino said as she started popping grapes into her mouth.

Masaru looked at her briefly. Wait a second, his "okay with it" wasn't the "okay with it" Yoshino thought he was referring to. His "okay with it," was referring to Tohma... getting close to him...

But Yoshino had a point too...

" Grahhhhh...!" Masaru suddenly attacked the grapes on his tray and gobbled them up in one go. " This is too much for me to handle all at one time! Whyyyy is this all happening now?"

Yoshino cocked her head back, a little perturbed by the abrupt mood change. " Whoa, where did that come from..."

" I don't think I'll do anything about it until I recover completely. I need to do that first. And we need to beat up the other Demon Lords. I wouldn't have to be stuck here if it weren't for them!"

Yoshino continued with her disturbed expression.

" But I'll think about it." Just as quickly, Masaru brought his voice back to a lower audacity level.

The short-haired woman gave him a somber look, noticing the serious tone in his words. She smiled.

" All you boys are such blockheads."

----

When Tohma came back later that afternoon, the others had left already. Yoshino had left his and Gaomon's portions there, but he declined eating it when he arrived.

" We've already eaten lunch, so we'll eat it later. Besides that, we're going to go swimming."

" ...Eh?"

Tohma didn't even continue explaining; he started carting Masaru out of the DATS hospital wing, still wearing his doctor's lab coat.

He brought Masaru to the swimming pool on the other end of the building. No one else happened to be using it.

" I just had this pool built recently. We'll be the first to use it."

Masaru gazed up from his wheelchair seat. " Tohma, I thought you were going to do the rehab stuff with me. What's with this?"

" It's hydrotherapy. The other doctors here don't use it, but I will be." He pulled out a bag he'd been carrying in one hand. " Here are your swimming trunks. I asked your mother for them. The men's changing room is over there. Need any help?"

" No, I'll be fine by myself..."

Still a little confused, Masaru took the bag, went into the men's changing room and changed into his swimming trunks. He'd gotten the freedom to change out of the hospital scrubs as soon as he started walking, and at least now it didn't hurt so much just to change his clothes by himself. When he came out, Tohma was already in his swimming trunks as well. The blond proceeded to lead Masaru over to the shallow end, where he could wade in. Instead of a ladder leading straight into the water, there was a ramp that gradually led all the way into the deep end.

" Head on in," Tohma offered. Masaru just kind of stared at him. " Or do you prefer we race down there?"

" I've still got the handicap here," said Masaru. " Whatever. Here I go then."

He waded in, and slowly, he started to realize why Tohma had brought him there. He had much of an easier time moving around the swimming pool floor with the water surrounding him, and he found that he could lift and bend his legs around without nearly as much pain. The buoyancy of the water was supporting him and reducing the stress on his joints.

Tohma swam up next to him, and all of a sudden he realized he had waded in all the way up to his chin.

" How's it feel?"

" It's... pretty nice. The water's a lot warmer than I thought it'd be."

Tohma smiled. " Here's a kickboard so you can focus on your legs. Try a few laps around the perimeter for starters. I'll be in the other pool doing laps. There's no deep-end in this pool, so hopefully you won't need a lifeguard around all the time, right?"

" Hmph."

There was another pool next to the main one, just the size of a strip for one person to go swimming back and forth to each narrow side.

Masaru took the kickboard and watched as Tohma got out and jumped into the other pool. He looked at the kickboard, and finally shrugging to himself, started doing the perimeter laps as instructed.

Although he said he'd 'think about it' to Yoshino, what exactly was he supposed to think about? Tohma was acting like he usually did, objective to the point and leaving no room to open pep talks. How was he supposed to figure out anything?

He watched Tohma do his laps in the other pool. The blond's strokes were wide and strong, carrying him swiftly through the water like... the freaking superman he was. Che. Masaru wanted to do that too.

And thus he kicked around as much as he could and went through several laps around the pool. By then, Tohma had come back to his side of the pool and had waded into the shallow end.

" Tired yet?"

" No way."

" Seems like you're in pretty good shape, Masaru. Wanna keep going?"

" Hell yeah."

He went through another set of laps around the pool while Tohma did his thing in the other pool again. And when Tohma came back, he challenged him to yet another round. He just couldn't help it. Even though they weren't doing the same thing (and that provoked him enough already), he wasn't ready to just give up quietly. But after a few more rounds, he found his legs at their limit. He hadn't been able to do such strenuous exercise in a long time, so he wasn't quite ready to do it for such long lengths.

" It's been over an hour. You should call it a day for now," Tohma said as he waited in the shallow end for the last time, water trickling over his feet on the ramp.

Masaru was kick-paddling his way towards him, panting. " But you... look like you could... still go on another hour."

" You could too eventually. Just not yet."

" Shut up..." He reached the shallow end, and tossing the kickboard to the side of the pool, he waded up to Tohma.

And to his surprise, just as he stepped out of the water, his right foot gave in.

Eh? He was sure he could stand up just fine still, but all of a sudden, his legs felt so heavy without the water to support him...

" Masaru!"

Tohma stepped up and caught him before he fell down.

Masaru grumbled to himself, then he realized he'd gotten Tohma all wet again after the blond had just toweled himself off.

" Ah, sorry..." he said as he pushed himself up from Tohma's arms. He paused before letting go.

In front of him was the view of water dripping down Tohma's well-shaped abdomen. He gulped.

" Here, I'll bring you back to the changing room."

Shit, why was he blushing. Why was Tohma not even looking at him.

But Tohma did look at him after a while... with a nonchalant look as ever. A wall. He draped Masaru's arm over his shoulder and headed towards the changing room. The blond's other hand clapsed his waist in support.

Some wall. Although he had gone off and said that Tohma could go for another hour, he was starting to have second thoughts about that now. No matter how much of a wall that blond was putting up, he wouldn't be able to stop Masaru from noticing the tiredness in his eyes. He had noticed it yesterday, and just now, spending time in the water had only emphasized those fatigue lines even further.

But walls were supposed to cover the inside anyway. Even this close, with the heat from their skin in full contact, he was still confused about what Tohma was thinking inside. Why... Why him?

----

Masaru had to admit, even though he didn't get to swim as long as he wanted to, he suddenly had a ton of adrenaline running through him that he hadn't felt in a long time, and he found himself wide awake as he went back to his room in the hospital.

He had changed to a clean set of t-shirt and sweatpants, and Tohma had his lab coat on over his olive-black shirt again. Masaru went over to his bed, which had looked quite inviting for a short breather. He'd stopped using the reclining bed and was now quite happy to have a comfy one like his one back home.

" Any plans for the rest of the day?" the brunet asked. To his curiosity, the question caused Tohma to stop writing on his clipboard.

" No..." Tohma said slowly at first. " Not particularly. Some tests are being run back in the lab, but I won't be able to check on them until tomorrow. I was going to help with investigating Asgard, but BanchouLeomon and Captain Satsuma both wanted me to stay out of it."

There was some silence in the room. Masaru could easily see through that one too. When was the last time that weirdo had an opening in his schedule? And Tohma seemed pretty shocked at the realization of it.

" Wanna hang out here then?"

Tohma passed the shocked look to him briefly before clearing his expression. " Is that okay?"

" Sure, why not? I could use the company."

" All right then."

He honestly didn't mind. And there were things he wanted to confirm...

For a while, the young doctor went and wrote more notes on his clipboard, sitting on a chair next to the bed. Then he took out his Digiwindow and appeared to be arranging some other things while Masaru remained sprawled out on his bed, doing some light leg exercises and stretches while watching TV. There was nothing interesting on, so he turned it off after a while though.

" What are you working on?" Masaru asked as he peeked at the Digiwindow screen.

" Just organizing some data used in making the Digital Code and sending it to some backups. I'll be using it for my other research in the future."

" Hmm~ Speaking of which, what'd you do after Minervamon broke our communicators? Wasn't yours all nice and customized?"

" Well, it didn't take me as long to re-customize the replacement. At least she didn't break the entire Digital Dive equipment like you had before."

Masaru's lips twitched as he blinked with embarrassment. He grunted heavily, then turned his face away to look out the open window.

The sun was still high in the sky, bringing enough daylight to keep the lighting in the room natural. It was a nice and somewhat hot summer day, and the wind was coming in just enough to give Masaru a welcoming breeze.

Tohma cleared his throat. " On the other hand, at least that's the worst you've done."

When Masaru turned his head back around, Tohma had the clipboard in his hand again.

......Even Masaru was able to catch that one. ' It isn't even your fault, tonma...'

He put his hands behind his head on the pillow. Time for a subject change. " Hey, Tohma. So how exactly does this Digital Code thing work?"

" ...? You wouldn't understand even if I tried to explain."

" Aren't you a genius? Think of some way to explain it. Or is that too difficult for you~?"

" ...You're testing me."

" If that's how you want to think of it, sure. Show me what you got."

Masaru scooted over and tilted his head to peer at the Digiwindow screen over Tohma's shoulder.

Tohma moved back to avoid getting too close. Just as he suspected. Under ordinary circumstances, neither one would have probably noticed, but now...

" Are you aware of how genetic DNA and RNA function?"

" Uh..."

" How about nucleotides? AGCT? Codons?"

" ...Codons? Is that similar to condoms?"

" ......."

Masaru stared as Tohma stared back with a quick red blush on his pale face. Masaru blinked. Had he said something odd? He wasn't too familiar with his foreign words... It just so happened that he'd heard people in random conversations talk about "condoms" but he'd never heard of this "codon" thing. "Condoms" were just those things people used for... sex...

Shaking the blush off, Tohma sighed. " N-No, they're not related. ...I figured as much. Let me show you some diagrams."

He closed some windows on the screen of the Digiwindow and opened a new one with some interactive diagram followed by a long chart full of AGCT strings written in a seemingly endless pattern. Masaru blinked hard at the image, noticing that a lot of it was color-coded, but still not grasping a single clue about what the diagram was for.

Not that he was paying close attention to that anyway. As Tohma started explaining the diagram, Masaru brought up a finger and pressed the diagram on the screen. To his surprise, the object he had pointed to on the diagram started moving with his finger.

" Whoa, it's moving!"

" Because it's a touch screen. You never noticed me using it? Since there's no mouse or space on the pad for a touch pad, this is one of the faster ways to navigate through the functions on this device."

Masaru had started touching other things on the screen randomly.

" Hey! Don't mess around with it so much!"

But Masaru was practically giggling to himself like an immature kid at the entertainment of the screen lighting up and moving around with his pointing.

" Hey!" Tohma said again, bringing up a hand to stop Masaru. He grabbed the ponytailed one's arm and started nudging him back on his bed.

" This is so neat! How come our Digivices don't have this kind of thing?"

" Because you'd be touching it accidentally all the time! It doesn't have a shutter like this does! Stop it already!"

" Hmm, I guess that's true. Well then let me enjoy it now while I can! Wee~"

" Hey!!"

It seemed he wasn't doing anything damaging to the Digiwindow itself (miraculously), but the interactive diagram was definitely a messy splatter all over the screen by now. Tohma tried to push Masaru's hand away, but Masaru was being just as stubborn as he pushed back. On purpose.

He couldn't help it. Tohma was just so easy to bully when it came to stuff like this.

The pushing game elevated as Masaru brought his other hand over and Tohma finally tried to move away with the Digiwindow in grip.

" Geez, do you know when to stop?" Tohma said in frustration when he stood up and away from Masaru's bed. Masaru just gave him an unfaltering grin. Tohma took another look at the screen. " Wait, this is..."

Since Tohma was facing Masaru, the screen was out of his sight, but Masaru could tell Tohma had become entranced with something on the screen.

" What happened?"

" This combination... might actually be useful."

" Combination? You mean all that random pressing of mine actually came up with something comprehendible?"

But Tohma didn't answer, as he was focusing on analyzing the screen. " Yes... I'll transfer this back to the lab to see what results they come up with."

" Wow, did I make some major breakthrough or something?"

" Well, not necessarily. But that was certainly something I wouldn't have thought of. It'll probably be a good clue in the end."

Masaru cocked his head. " Another clue, eh? But this is for your other research, right?"

" Yeah. For my sister."

Masaru smiled. " Ah, for her. See? I'm not a hopeless case when it comes to machines after all!"

" Uh..."

" Okay, okay, maybe that's saying too much."

Tohma gave a light sigh and went to press some other parts of the screen to get the data transfer going. He placed the Digiwindow on the table and sat back. They watched as the data processing bar made its appearance and started filling up.

That Tohma... Even when the older guys had essentially told him to take a break, he was still doing things like this...

That Tohma... He must've been doing this for a long time. After all, his sister was how old? Seven, eight years old? If Tohma had been working like this ever since then... Dude, that was like half his entire life. And it'd only become more with the way things were.

But he'd come to accept a bit that Tohma was just like that. He was always fighting for a clear reason, even if that reason wasn't clearly evident all the time. He was difficult to read because of that, but Masaru had started catching on. And it had led to discovering what Tohma thought of him...

Masaru brought his hand up to his lips. He could still remember the heat from Tohma's breath, the same heat that was remaining on his arms when Tohma was trying to push him away just earlier.

" Hey, Tohma."

The blond gave a slight tilt of the head in response.

" Are you..."

......

He couldn't bring himself to say it. He put his hand down.

Something was still missing.

" What's your sister like?" he asked instead.

Again, Tohma looked surprised at the question. But he answered earnestly. " She's a sweet girl. She was... unfortunately born with a weak body, and she's unable to leave the house for long periods of time. She has to have doctors by her side 24/7 because she could fall into deadly seizures at any moment. Even in her condition, she's so kind to everyone she meets. She deserves so much better..."

Even as the data transfer finished, they were back to silence again.

Tohma sighed. It seemed like there was much more to the story, but he wasn't up to telling Masaru about it. What he had said already seemed to be a lot for the blond to admit.

Masaru almost sighed himself. Tohma really was the type to push himself too much, no matter how much he said he wasn't. Add on those slightly fatigued eyes that he could still notice...

" Maybe you should just go home and get some extra sleep."

" Eh?"

" I'll be fine here. You should go back."

" But... I'd rather stay here."

Masaru paused. There it was...

" Believe it or not, but it's actually quieter here than back in the mansion," Tohma continued. " There are always people hounding me in the building when I stay there during the day. Attendants coming in with messages and whatnot."

The ponytailed one gave an extra exhale. " Oh really... Well, I was thinking of getting some quick shut-eye anyway. They say an hour-long nap can work wonders."

" Who says that..."

" Not that it really matters to me anyway. You can hop on here if you want to too, Tohma. There's enough space."

" ...? But..."

Of course Masaru knew what he was asking. It was on purpose too, but he didn't mean anything malicious by it this time. It was... an honest offer. " It's just like my bed back home. It'll be fine." He moved over to give Tohma space, inviting him in.

Tohma still looked at him in dead silence, hesitating.

" Come on, it's the perfect chance to catch up a little. You haven't been getting enough sleep lately, have you."

Tohma opened his eyes wide for a moment, but then reduced his gaze back to that tired, usual look. " I'll be okay."

" No you won't. Come on. I won't bite or anything."

Masaru caught Tohma's fleeting blush again as the blond took his lab coat off and set it on the chair, then laid down on the bed next to Masaru.

Another sigh, and Tohma finally shrugged his shoulders. " All right, all right. If you so insist..."

" Of course. How can I expect you to look after me if you won't even look after yourself first?"

" ...Thanks."

After some light adjustment, Tohma immediately shut his eyes and started dozing off.

Actually, Masaru wasn't sleepy at all. He just knew Tohma sure as hell was.

' Idiot. '

After a few minutes, he carefully turned around to face the blond.

It was... an honest offer indeed. He wasn't uncomfortable with Tohma there next to him on the same bed. The thing was... he never really WAS uncomfortable with that, but the fact that he wasn't uncomfortable still disturbed him somehow, as odd as it sounded.

Tohma was snoozing off peacefully, his hair and olive-black shirt rustling subtly with the wind coming in from the window.

' Idiot. Tonma.'

' Idiot. Myself.'

Masaru couldn't believe himself. How did this guy, so completely different from him every way except their age and obstinacy, end up this close? Was he really thinking about doing that to their relationship...

Perhaps. Since after a whole month of being apart, he still had that idiot blond on his mind way too often.

Since no matter how much he tried to forget the troubles between them, he'd keep remembering.

Since he'd become so conscious of Tohma's condition that he was doctoring Tohma, even though that genius was supposed to be HIS physician.

Since his chest hurt to see Tohma hurting himself.

Since he was a man like Masaru who had sparked so much competition between them... competition and comradeship.

Since he was there to support Masaru.

Since he even cared in the first place.

Since he would get angry and keep the fighter in check when he was being overly irrational.

Since he would give Masaru such a reassuring look whenever things looked tight.

Since he would actually take Masaru seriously when it counted, to give him that reassuring look.

Since he would take on Masaru's punches and still come off strong in the end...

Since Masaru couldn't take his eyes off...

Since it was Tohma.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to open up to the blond that much. Not yet.

Masaru had his own pride too, a pride expected of him as the man of his family. A pride he held for himself, so that he would be stronger than anyone. And he knew Tohma held something similar. Yet something was different. Something was causing them to hold back on themselves, to hold back on each other... a stray link. Every time he came to think about Tohma, going through that cycle of thoughts, he'd come across it.

If only... If only he knew what that stray link was.

----

The next day, Masaru's legs felt the most sore he'd ever felt possibly in the whole fifteen years of his life. Even so, Tohma pushed him to spend another hour of laps around the pool. If it hadn't been Tohma, Masaru likely would've never gotten the motivation to keep going despite his sore condition. Just seeing the blond swimming next to him, swimming away at full power, would set him off key and give him plenty of a reminder.

The pattern repeated for several more days, and by the end of the week, Masaru stopped noticing the soreness altogether. He could get up from his wheelchair and walk around places through the hospital without anyone needing to watch over him. And by then, he had to snicker at himself. This had been Tohma's intention for the hydrotherapy, and it was working like a charm. Within a single week, not only had he reduced the pain in his legs, but he was getting back the fitness he had before the incident.

Tohma then put him on pool exercises for an additional hour per day, which Masaru accepted in full stride. From there on, the road to recovery was quick and smooth for him.

One day, when Agumon was visiting, the old duo went wandering around the DATS wing and ended up coming across the security room, where the guard had stepped out for a quick break and forgotten to lock the door. Inside were the monitors for the entrances to the wings, where security check cards were needed for access, and good 'ol Masaru somehow managed to mess up things with just a little toying around the machines. At that point, the people at the hospital conveniently figured it was just the right time for Masaru to leave and return home.

Instead of bringing the wheelchair, he only brought back a crutch for his right leg, which needed a little extra time. Even then, the natural fighter completely abandoned the crutches within days of returning home, and before everyone knew it, he was venturing the streets just like in the old days.

He could hang out at the game center again. He could go to the batting cage again. He could practice his boxing again. Those other delinquents who were familiar with him cowered at his sight, knowing he was involved in more than just street-fighting. He was a bit surprised to see that the effect of a single television airing on DATS was still carrying through people's consciousness, but later he found out that he'd been the luckiest of the group. Tohma and Yoshino had to wear sunglasses whenever they went out into populated areas to avoid getting pointed out.

On the other hand, Agumon was quite excited for him. One afternoon, when they had been asked to come to DATS, they walked together to the Norstein mansion. Tohma was on duty for his shift, although it seemed like he was busying himself with the other lab researchers as usual. BanchouLeomon and Minervamon were overlooking some documents in the ballroom-turned-main HQ room. Gaomon was with them. Masaru and Agumon greeted them and they returned it, beckoning them to come over and check out the documents with them.

" What's going on here?" Masaru questioned, poking his head between Gaomon and Agumon to see what was on the papers. He was met by a long list of random numbers that sent his head whirling. " Err... the heck?"

" Oh, you probably wouldn't understand any of it... but it's our key. Our key to finding the remaining three Demon Lords," Minervamon explained.

" You found them?" Masaru eyes widened, excited at the news.

" Yeah, and we're busting in on them tomorrow. All of us. That is, if you're up for it."

" All three of them at the same time?" Agumon said in awe.

BanchouLeomon nodded. " We've got more than enough manpower if all four of you members, Minervamon and I go. These last three have been extremely cautious, and it took us just this long to figure out how they've been cloaking themselves. It's hard to say they'll take any chances to fight us separately unless we strategize something or use enough force on them."

" Ideally, Yoshino and Ikuto will take on one of them, BanchouLeomon and I will take on another, and you and Tohma have whoever's last. Six Ultimates against three. Sure, it's unfair for them, but we can't take our chances either~"

Masaru took a moment to let the news sink in. His returning fight back at DATS and it was the perfect setup for pairing teamwork. This was definitely something he was looking forward to...

The operators Kurosaki and Shirakawa came by in full spirits, obviously excited by something as well.

" Masaru, long time no see!" they said in unison.

" Tohma's holding a party tonight here in celebration of your recovery and as a pre-celebration for the battle tomorrow," Shirakawa informed.

" Although we'll probably have another celebration after the battle. Well, it's not like I have anything against these!"

" A celebration, eh..." Masaru repeated.

" Give him some glory, all right?" Kurosaki said smugly, " He gets a lot of praise from the doctors around him, but you're the only one around his age who'd really understand everything he's doing."

" Huh? What are you trying to tell me..."

" Just some advice," Kurosaki replied off-handedly. " We'll see you later tonight then, okay? We're going to do the preparations for the party."

The others watched the two girls as they left the main headquarters room.

What kind of advice was that? Of course he knew...

Tohma had kept coming in and out of the main headquarters room, sometimes with another doctor following him. That Tohma...

Masaru watched in the corner of his eyesight as Tohma chatted with the doctor standing next to him. Reading the atmosphere around them, it seemed like the two were discussing some light matters. Suddenly, Tohma gave a chuckle and pat the older doctor on the shoulder. Just when had Masaru gotten so used to seeing Tohma act like all the other grown-ups? Besides Ikuto, who didn't even have a DATS uniform anyway, they were the two youngest people in all of DATS, after all...

" Aniki, hey are you listening?" came Agumon's voice, interrupting his thoughts.

" H-Huh?"

" Geez, you weren't listening at all! BanchouLeomon was telling us how we're going to raid the Demon Lords' place tomorrow! We're the only ones who don't know yet! Don't you wanna know?"

" Oh, I do, I do." He honestly did. He turned towards the group of Digimon, but not without catching Tohma leave the main headquarters again with the older doctor.

Fighting, together with Tohma again, eh...

----

It was a much bigger celebration than he had imagined. Even with the ballroom already occupied with the DATS equipment, there was still plenty of room in the Norstein mansion with its massive reception room providing space for everyone to meander and socialize. Streamers and other decorations filled the room, the maids and butler busied themselves with serving food and refreshments, and with a steady stream of classical music playing out of the surround system, Masaru could definitely feel the celebratory aura of the night.

All of the DATS members he was familiar with were there. Satsuma, old man Yushima and their Digimon greeted Masaru for the first time in what felt like ages. The Noguchi's had come with Ikuto and even the little Yuka seemed to be having a happy time as Yoshino, Kurosaki and Shirakawa spent most of their time playing with her. BanchouLeomon and Minervamon were enjoying some refreshments while gazing out the balcony on the outer side of the room. Ikuto as usual was romping around with the other Digimon, while Chika stayed by her mother's side as they went around the party area.

Masaru had his convivial fun with all of them, when he finally noticed that Tohma wasn't even in the scene. He asked the people around about his whereabouts, but none of them seemed to know. Except old man Yushima.

" He's probably still back in the research facilities on the other side of the building. Why don't you come bring him over? He's missing out on all the entertainment," said Yushima, tapping his cane behind him as Kamemon came up to give him a glass of sake.

That was for sure. What was the point if the party host wasn't even there?

He went down the long hallway of the Norstein mansion towards the research facility room. The stairs leading to the second floor were on the way, and as he passed by, he heard voices from above. One of them was obviously Tohma.

He started heading up the stairs and was about to call him down, when he started hearing the actual conversation.

" You know she's only your half-sister, Tohma," came a deeper voice.

" Yes, but I still grew up with her. She's the sole person who would smile for me in that country back then."

" I know. You really are protective about the people you care for."

" Certainly more than you, apparently."

" Tohma!"

Masaru stiffened up at the yell followed by silence. Was he perhaps listening in on a conversation he really shouldn't be hearing? Who was Tohma talking to?

The other voice continued, bringing his tone down. " How dare you say that, Tohma..."

" You gave up your single most chance to defend my mother. Even after her death, you wouldn't defend her. Not in front of grandmother, not in front of me... Not once in almost ten years."

Tohma's mother... death?

Masaru froze on spot, too shocked to move. Was he really hearing this?

" I had my circumstances."

" That's just an excuse. Clearly, you're free to defend Relena as much as you like because SHE's not 'common blood.' But hear me on this... I'm not looking to cure her just because of her lineage. I'm not doing it for the Norstein family."

" Tohma, I..."

Another silence. He knew he was hearing something really personal right now, but he couldn't find it in himself to pull away.

" You might not be so proud of me, but I want you to know... that I'm still proud of you, Tohma."

" ......Father?"

" If something horrible were to happen, I would never be able to face her..."

" Don't worry, Relena will be fine. It's only a matter of time before the research is complete and she'll be cured."

" I'm not talking about Relena. I'm talking about your mother. I'm talking about YOU. Come back safely tomorrow, will you?"

Masaru heard Tohma gasp. He couldn't see what was going on, but he could tell that something big had just happened.

" Father..."

And all of a sudden, Masaru started putting the pieces together.

Another minute or so passed by and the older voice spoke up again. " We best get to the party, Tohma. They're probably wondering where their host is."

" W...Wait, Father."

" ...What is it?"

" ...I'm... I'm glad you could come today. It really means a lot to me. Thanks."

" ...Hm. Happy birthday, Tohma. Now let's go."

...?!?!?! came Masaru's reaction.  
But he didn't have any more time to react on it since he heard footsteps heading his way. He backed up so it didn't seem like he'd just been eavesdropping on their conversation just now.

" Masaru?  
What're you doing over here?"

" Me? Oh, eheheh..." he replied with a hint of uneasiness. " Yushima told me to go fetch you."

" Sorry for waiting. I'll head over right now. Oh, Masaru? This is my father."

Masaru swung his ponytail head a little to see the taller man next to Tohma. He recognized him from before. So that was his father...

" Franz Norstein. Masaru, is it? I hear your recovery is going to allow DATS to close up this crisis in the Digital World."

Masaru grinned. Normally, he'd imagined that the older nobleman would be stiffer to talk to, but maybe it was the situation they were in that made their relationship easier to deal with. " It sure is. Just leave it all to the great Daimon Masaru-sama!"

Franz raised an eyebrow, looking slightly bewildered, but he passed it off and they continued walking down the hallway together, back towards the reception room.

Walking besides Tohma, Masaru had to wonder about the conversation he just overheard. Actually, what gripped him even before that was... it was Tohma's birthday?! Then didn't that mean their celebration today was a sort of birthday party for him too? He assumed none of the others knew about it, since there hadn't been any mentioning from them. Was he keeping it a secret on purpose?

He stared at the blond as they walked on. Weirdo.

Of course, there were a lot of other things he'd just heard too, and he knew he would need some time to let them sink in.

Tohma's father... had such a stern-looking expression on him all the time. So this was the European half of Tohma... Then what about his mother? His... deceased... mother...

" Something the matter, Masaru?" Tohma turned towards him as he realized Masaru was staring.

" ...Nothing..."

He turned to look down the hallway instead, not ready to bring up the subject on his mind.

----  
Author blab

----

Party to be continued...

You know, I never really understood how the Digimon used chopsticks. Did they use chopsticks in the Digital World? Otherwise Ikuto wouldn't have a clue on how to use them either. People don't just like... naturally know how to use chopsticks if they didn't grow up using them. Dude. Well, it's Digimon. XD

I know the Japanese (or is this an Asian thing?) are generally real pricks when it comes to sleeping in open air "because you'll catch a cold" and junk like that, but really, on hot days with a good wind, why resist? D8

I don't believe Yoshino's parents would be so keen on showing up to these Digimon events. Does her father even exist? We only ever hear and see a little about the mother in the series. Sadness!


	8. Chapter 8

As they came back to the celebration, Masaru was a bit surprised to see BanchouLeomon talking to his mother and Chika. Minervamon was off playing with the other Digimon as they ran around the reception room.

" Mom...?" he inquired as he approached. Franz and Tohma came up with him.

" Oh, Masaru. BanchouLeomon and I were just talking about you. He was telling me all about your adventures in the Digital World."

Masaru blinked. Then again, he knew his mother had a weak spot for listening to outrageous, out-of-the-world stories. His father used to make special storytelling nights with the three of them, and still even after Chika was born. Surely hearing ones about her own son would catch her interest, but she had never asked him directly to tell her what he had gone through. But how much did BanchouLeomon know about HIS adventures?

" BanchouLeomon..." Tohma started. The banchou looked at him, but neither continued speaking.

" Oh my God, look at that cake!" one of the girls' voices rang throughout the room.

The butler came strolling in with a giant cake on the flatbed stroller he was pushing. The said cake was pure white, save for the fruit decorations covering each of the 5 layers that towered over even the butler himself. With how soft and fluffy the white yogurt frosting was, just about everyone in the room felt their mouths water at the sight.

" This thing is HUGE," Yoshino said brutally. " Can we really finish this?"

" Well, it's got the Digimon's portions in there too," Lalamon reminded her. " I'm sure Agumon could eat a whole layer by himself."

" CAN I?!" Agumon piped excitedly.

" Err..."

They went to eat up the cake, and sure enough, by the time everyone had their first passes, they knew they had plenty left in their stomachs to finish it off. Not a lick remained. Agumon assured that.

Masaru, who had been distracted for a while by the cake, spotted Tohma outside, on the balcony, talking to Gaomon. After a while, the blond leaned up against the balcony rail and gazed up at the evening sky. It seemed like they'd finished their conversation, peaking Masaru's curiosity.

There was a clear, glass wall separating the reception room and the balcony. As Masaru went through the glass door and closed it behind him, the sound of the party inside quickly became muted.

The two who were already there noticed him. Gaomon made a short bow to his master and went on inside, not even bothering with a greeting for Masaru. The brunet gave him an odd look.

" What was that about?"

" We were just talking about things..." Tohma said calmly, turning back around to gaze at the sky again.

Masaru went to join him on leaning over the railing. " Such as..."

" My father... I wasn't expecting him to show up today. He came on such short notice again..."

" Again?"

" That time when we came back to the real world with ElDoradimon... he showed up back then as well."

Masaru fell silent.

" No, he's not the reason why I pretended to be on Kurata's side if that's what you're thinking."

" I wasn't. I was just thinking... you really are a nobleman."

Tohma raised an eyebrow. " ...And you just found out?"

" Shut up," Masaru muttered quickly. " I mean, that's after meeting him and all... What about your mom? She's Japanese?"

Tohma froze momentarily, just barely enough for Masaru to notice.

Masaru was purposely not asking more about her. He wanted to know what Tohma would say...

" Yeah."

But that was all he said before he went back to staring at the sky.

Tch. He really wasn't going to talk about it on his own.

Tricky...

Dangling his arms over the rail, Masaru gave a fake yawn. " Ahh~ It was nice of your father to come for the party. I wish mine could be here too."

" It's been ten years, right? Since you've last seen him..."

" Yeah."

" Tomorrow... How are you feeling about going up against the Demon Lords again?"

" I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" Masaru replied without hesitation. " Couldn't be more excited."

" I still find it hard to believe..." Tohma said as he looked down at Masaru's legs. " Those injuries would take most people YEARS to fully recover, yet you did it in the span of less than three months..."

There was some mysterious forlorn expression on the blond's face, readily marked by his furrowed eyebrows.

Masaru in turn raised his own eyebrows. What was he getting so sad about now? Wasn't it his birthday?

Suddenly, the words of the operator girls floated in Masaru's mind. Give him some glory, they said...

Not like he had a birthday present prepared... he had an idea for making one though.

" Wanna see how well I recovered?"

" Hm?"

Before Tohma could finish turning around, Masaru had socked a fist into his cheek. The blond staggered back, but kept his balance as he stared back at Masaru.

" Masaru, what...?!"

He'd held back on that punch quite a bit just to stun the birthday boy, and now he had both of his fists up to size up his opponent.

" See if you can land one on me NOW, genius," he challenged. He started hopping around the ground on his feet, ready to spring at any moment.

" But you just recovered, I'm not going to..."

" Excuses, excuses, I think you've just been out of practice too long and you've forgotten how to fight."

" Huh?! I should be saying that to you!"

" Oh, I'm never out of practice. I was born with it!"

" What do you mean 'born with it?!'"

" I was born a man among men! Unlike a certain Tonma H. Norstein snob aristocrat!!"

" What did you just call me?!"

" Tonma H Norstein, snob aristocrat! Need to hear it again?"

" I can't believe after all this time, you're still calling me that!"

" You're just jealous that your ability to recover isn't as strong as mine!"

" Why, you absolute...!!!"

He didn't notice if people inside the glass wall were staring at them as they chased each other around the balcony for those few minutes, fists flying.

Eventually, neither of them got the best of each other (although there were a few sockings here and there) and they both had to lean on the railing to catch their breath.

" See...? I recovered... pretty well, didn't I?"

Tohma let out a puff from his vocal chords. " Why do I end up fighting with you over stupid things like this..."

Masaru exhaled and inhaled a long breath, calming down. " Thank you, Tohma."

" ...?"

" A whole lot of this is thanks to you, man. I wouldn't be here standing next to you otherwise."

" ......"

" You're coming through with our pact. All that's left is to pummel those Demon Lords to their oblivion!"

Masaru struck a manly pose with his arms, glorifying the moment.

Tohma finally smiled, and Masaru had to admit, he was really wanting to see that smile... although he didn't admit that out loud.

" What about afterwards?" Tohma said. " We've managed to get better 'privacy' from the media, so things will probably be back to normal for REAL after this."

" Hmm, that'd be nice for once. What are you going to do?"

" Continue my research for my sister, of course... Now that I've gotten so many clues from the Digital Code, I can really narrow down on it... What about you?"

Masaru paused. " Well, I was doing some thinking in the hospital and these past few weeks about that... I want to find my dad. Even if it means I'll have to be in the Digital World for a long time."

He waited for Tohma's reaction, but to his surprise, there was almost none that he could decipher.

It was true. He really was thinking about making an extended stay in the Digital World to search for his father after everything with the Demon Lords was over. The thing was... he couldn't leave his mother and Chika behind for too long, and Tohma...

...was smiling again. But this time, it was that "in his own world of thoughts" sort of mouth lift.

" What? That smile of yours is kind of making me uncomfortable, Tohma," he said as he raised his eyebrows again.

Tohma gave him a clearer glance and shook his head slightly. " Sorry, I just..."

Well, he wouldn't stay away from home for too long. His family still needed a man in the house as far as he was concerned. He just wanted to see Tohma's reaction if HE were the one to go missing for a while...

" It'd be completely possible. The Digital Dive equipment isn't nearly as unreliable as it was in the past. As long as you arrive at a certain point within a certain timeframe, you could freely come in and out of the Digital World now. You could spend your days searching there and then come back home at the end of the day easily."

Masaru hadn't expected such an analytical response. " Eh?"

" You've got family to look over here too. You wouldn't leave them for too long."

Oh... now that he understood. Tohma... was a step ahead of him already.

" Heh, you're right."

They went back to staring up at the sky in silence.

Though the party sounds were muffled, he could hear Agumon arguing with Minervamon behind him, something along the lines of Agumon not knowing what "romance" was and pissing off the older Digimon.

" Masaru."

Suddenly, Tohma had moved closer and was facing him again.

" There's something I think you should know. I'll tell you after the battle tomorrow."

Masaru held his breath for a moment. Was Tohma... planning to confess to him? No, no, nonono, no way, he couldn't be. This was something else... It had to be. Something else... " Eh? Why not tell me now?"

" If I told you now, you'd be distracted in the battle tomorrow."

" Well, I'm going to be distracted anyway since you're leaving me in suspense like that."

" ...Sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up."

" Hey, hey, I'm kidding." Masaru pat the blond's shoulder, grinning. " Seriously, it'll give me something more to look forward to. What crazy thing Tohma H. Norstein is going to tell me tomorrow... If you're making so much of a point out of it, it's gotta be something big."

" Masaru..."

Just moments ago, he was using Tohma's name as an insult, yet when things came down to it, he knew he actually trusted Tohma a whole lot. And surely, Tohma knew too... right?

Tohma's hand went up and rested on Masaru's hair. The brunet jerked in slight surprise, but then stood still. Hey, what was the big idea of putting his hand on him all of a sudden?

Tohma's light-toned fingers brushed aside some of Masaru's bangs to reveal the faint scar on his forehead. He shuffled closer.

" Hmph, I can barely see it. It might even disappear altogether in a few more years."

Ah, he'd tried that before, back when Masaru would still flinch at his touch. But things weren't like that anymore.

There was so much trust between them now, so why was it so difficult...

As soon as they defeated the demon lords tomorrow, he was sure he'd start getting answers at least. Even if Tohma wasn't intending to confess, he was still going to get answers of some sort. Maybe it was something about Tohma's family, since he was still curious...

" Don't forget to tell me, okay?" Masaru finished as he casually took Tohma's hand off and started heading back inside the building.

" I won't."

And right when they walked back in, the girls started up the karaoke box. A panel on one side of the walls opened up to reveal a flat, wide-screen TV, and before everyone else knew it, they started singing the pop songs of the time and the room got very noisy... to say the least. Sayuri wasn't much for the atmosphere of the karaoke, and Chika was getting sleepy, so BanchouLeomon volunteered to escort them back. Apparently, the average person wouldn't bother him if he were to wander the open streets anyway.

" Masaru, you might as well head back too," Tohma suggested.

" Eh? But the night's just started."

Tohma gave him a relaxed grin. " We won't be up that late either. We all have to leave at daybreak, after all. Spend some time with your family and get some good rest tonight, all right? I'll see you tomorrow."

Family... The word struck out to Masaru.

" Right..." Almost as if hypnotized by the words, Masaru left with the rest of his family, Agumon and BanchouLeomon. Franz had been standing next to Tohma when they waved their farewells.

" BanchouLeomon, you don't have to escort us. I'll be with them," Masaru said as the banchou walked in front of them.

BanchouLeomon faced him to reply. " No need to mind me. I felt like taking a walk anyway."

It was a brisk evening outside, and the clicking sounds of cicadae fading away into the night filled their ears as they walked back to the Daimon residence in peace.

" It certainly is a good evening for a walk," Sayuri said.

" I would've liked to hear the tsukutsukuboushi, but it seems too early for them still this year," BanchouLeomon commented.

" Darn right," Chika said a little sleepily. " I haven't even STARTED my summer break yet, I can't have them telling me that summer's going to end already!"

Despite her sour response, she was rubbing her eyes and groaning to stay awake. BanchouLeomon smiled at her.

" BanchouLeomon, you like the sound of the tsukutsukuboushi?" Sayuri asked curiously, eyes widening.

" Yes, that beautiful songbird-like clicking... We have something like them in the Digital World, but it's not quite the same. And not filled with nearly as much history, of course."

Masaru's mother stared at the lion man, as if entranced by his words.

What was this... Masaru thought that some of the things that happened today were surreal enough, now his own mother was blanking out too?

......

Tohma's mother...

Tohma had his own share of family issues too. His mother had died... almost ten years ago? Almost ten years was just about when Masaru's own father had disappeared. Tohma had... grown up without a mother. And from what he had heard from the first parts he heard of their conversation, he hadn't been on good terms with his father until then either.

But something big had happened at the end of the conversation between Tohma and his father tonight. They had come to some kind of reconciliation, likely for the first time in all their lives. Something else must've happened to lead up to the event, something that Masaru had missed out on. While he was curious about it, Masaru's mind didn't dwell on that specifically. It was another revelation...

Masaru had his mother, and although his father was missing, he had full reason to believe he too was alive, somewhere out there. He still had his father to look up to, even if he wasn't physically around. Tohma, on the other hand...

He never knew. So this was why Tohma was so dense when it came to certain interactions. He'd grown up most of his life without knowing the love of his parents.

No, no. Masaru shook his head. That sounded too much like the typical son-of-royalty situation. It was the love of his FATHER that Tohma hadn't known. But Tohma's mother... She'd given her love to Tohma, right? What had happened to her?

There were too many clues, yet still too many things Masaru didn't know clearly.

" Masaru, the fight tomorrow..." BanchouLeomon said, interrupting his thoughts. "...is not going to be easy despite our outnumbering the Demon Lords. They're near their full power, and they have the advantage in the Asgard partition. Don't let them get the better of you no matter what happens. Got it?"

Reassuringly, Masaru threw a fist in front of him. " A man won't go back on his words. I said I was going to take down the last Demon Lord, and I will! So don't worry about me."

They gave each other glares, fully intending to fire each other up, and they couldn't help but grin at each other in the end.

" Hmph. That's what I wanted to hear," BanchouLeomon said, crossing his arms as they continued down the street.

That's right. Tomorrow was going to be a fateful day...

He'd been waiting for it. Fighting alongside the others he had become so familiar with, those he trusted with all his manliness on the line. They would all be there for him tomorrow, fighting for the same goal...

----

The next day, Satsuma gathered everyone and regurgitated the plans to make sure everyone fully understood what was going to happen.

Yoshino and Ikuto were to go against Beelzebumon. BanchouLeomon and Minervamon would take on Lilithmon, leaving Masaru and Tohma to Leviamon. They had gathered all the information they could find on the three Demon Lords, which was not very much, but at least they would have some preparations beforehand and some idea of exactly who they were up against.

Yoshino and Ikuto knew that Beelzebumon was primarily a gun-user, had deadly claws and rode a motorcycle "from hell." ...which Yoshino shrugged off, saying it'd just be like chasing a speeding motorcyclist then, nothing she was too unfamiliar with.

Tohma showed Masaru the information on Leviamon they currently had on file. With words like "Devil's Beast" and "has the ability to engulf the entire Digital World if so desired" and "root of all evil" and "physically strongest Digimon in existence," it only excited Masaru all the more.

" Strongest Digimon in existence? We'll see about that after he goes through ME."

" But Aniki, you're not a Digimon."

" So what's that got to do with it?"

BanchouLeomon and Minervamon didn't say anything about their opponent, but the others could readily tell that they knew what they were doing.

They were all set. Kurosaki, Shirakawa, and the PawnChessmon were at their stations preparing the Digital Gate opening.

" Remember, you're going against DEMON LORDS here," Satsuma said as his last words to them. " At this point of time, they'll all be as strong as Belphemon, if not stronger with their advantage in Asgard. Keep your guards up. This is a major step in protecting the peace in both worlds, so don't take it lightly!"

The young DATS fighters brought their feet together and nodded back with firm salutes.

The Daimons, the Noguchis, and Franz Norstein all stood by to wish the best for their children as they departed into the Digital World. Right before the Ultimate Digimon visitors stepped into the Dive portal, Sayuri touched BanchouLeomon's arm.

" BanchouLeomon... please, whatever happens, protect Masaru... Make sure he doesn't overdo things and get injured again..."

The rest of the headquarters watched them as BanchouLeomon paused, then slowly turned around to face her. " He'll come back safe and sound, Sayuri. You have my word."

Masaru's mother looked like she wanted to say something more, but no later BanchouLeomon turned back around and walked onto the Diving platform, where the flash of the transport device had already begun glowing.

" Digital Gate... Open!"

The view of the headquarters where the parents, the Captain and the others had been standing changed to that of digital 0's and 1's streaming horizontally, chasing them down as they Dived into the Digital World.

They landed in an open area of plains, where Tohma immediately set to opening his DigiWindow and entering in various data. As far as Masaru understood, he was inputting some kind of algorithm that would transfer them to the vicinity of the Demon Lords in the Asgard partition, in an area where they would have no time to escape until one group defeated the other. It was the epitome of the "point of no return," as if they were approaching the final dungeon of some typical role-playing game.

" Everyone have their Digivices ready? We're charging up as soon as we finish transferring. They might even be on the run as soon as they see us," Tohma informed the others. They nodded back in confirmation. " Here we go!"

The group bid farewell to the quick glimpse of the Digital World they'd gotten and greeted the darkness that soon loomed over them.

" Geez, would it kill them to get some digital sunlight in this partition?!" Minervamon said sarcastically.

" Yes, it probably would kill them," BanchouLeomon replied with a grin.

" What, are they vampires?"

The other DATS members aside from Masaru had already evolved their Digimon to their Ultimate Burst forms, and they were on the lookout for the Demon Lords. None of them were in sight.

" Did they expect us and run away?" Masaru said as he put his hands on his DATS uniform belt. Nothing to his left, nothing to his right.

" That can't be. This is technically supposed to be an ambush..." Tohma said.

" Wait, what's that sound?"

Once they quieted down, they could hear the faint growling of some kind of engine.

Yoshino grinned. " Sounds like our ride's here at least. You ready, Ikuto?"

" Yeah!"

The two ran off in the direction of the engine noise with their Digimon flying behind, and darkness quickly engulfed them.

" Whoa," Masaru said as he saw the duo disappear before his eyes. " They only walked a few feet away. How did..."

" That's how this place works, Asgard," Tohma told him. " Supposedly, you're only able to see what you're fated to see here. The same with hearing. It's some relation to the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil motto. Just in this case, you just don't see, hear or speak whatever's not in your fate. Since it's the Digital World, you could say it's sort of like... running Windows in Safe Mode. No, hopefully something more efficient than that. It's more like having hidden files... the PC owner could view those hidden files without a problem, but anyone else on the network would need special permission, otherwise they wouldn't be able to view it."

" Hmm~" came the bemused response from the ponytail fighter. Although he didn't get the explanation anyway. He stopped paying attention halfway.

In the silence that followed, Minervamon picked off the hairpins from her forelocks and expanded them back into her giant sword and shield. BanchouLeomon kept his arms crossed, while Masaru kept circling his view in hopes of finding his opponent lurking in the shadows.

As if following a certain cue, the pitch black ground beneath them trembled ominously.

A rumbling voice shook through them, long and deep. " Cauda," the voice uttered slowly.

From overhead, a couple massive lengths of scales came hurling in their general vicinity.

" Above! Take cover!" Tohma shouted, already making a run for it.

" Master!" By sheer habit, MirageGaogamon, with the fluorescent blades of his Burst Mode glaring in perfect view, lowered a hand for his Tamer to jump onto.

" Aniki!" Likewise, Masaru and Agumon tumbled away from the incoming objects.

BanchouLeomon and Minervamon leaped out just in time for the gigantic mass of scales to impact the ground. Masaru caught a glimpse of aqua blue frills on what looked like tails, until a torrent of water shot up from the surface it impacted.

MirageGaogamon, with Tohma on his shoulder, scooped up the other two to save them from the rushing water. " It's Leviamon's tails!"

" Seriously? One of those tails by itself is like ten times bigger than you! Can we really defeat that thing?" Masaru groaned to Tohma's Digimon. " And look, there's water coming out of the ground!"

" Not good, he's going to flood the area," Tohma said as he observed the water building up beneath them. " BanchouLeomon! Minervamon!"

" Lilithmon's here! We'll be fine on our own! Concentrate on Leviamon!" BanchouLeomon barked back some distance away. Already, Masaru and Tohma couldn't see the two lone Ultimates of their group.

The torrents of water, which had been blocking their view of Leviamon, had already flooded their area up to MirageGaogamon's waist. He waded his way out of the water and jetted himself into the empty air. They heard another rumbling sound and the torrents cleared out, revealing Leviamon's tails rising far above them once again.

" Well, we'll never know unless we try... I'm going!" Before anyone could stop him, Masaru jumped off MirageGaogamon to take a whack at the tails.

Just like old times, he managed to get onto one of the tails safely and punch it to activate his Digisoul. MirageGaogamon simply picked him back up as he flipped back in full confidence that someone would catch him.

Masaru charged his Digivice, and soon Agumon was in action as ShineGreymon, Burst Mode.

" ShineGreymon! Fire those tails into oblivion!" Masaru roared from ShineGreymon's shoulder, a little embarrassed that the tails were all they could see.

" Glorious Burst!" ShineGreymon fired gigantic balls of energy at the tails, but they were easily extinguished as soon as they hit, as if they had no effect.

" ......"

" I thought so," Tohma observed. " This one won't have any weak spots on the outside. His skin's too tough."

" Whaa? Then what are we supposed to do?"

Tohma gave him a rather pathetic look. " You might not like it very much, but you'll see when we get the chance."

" Huh?"

" Rostrum!"

The deep voice cut into Masaru's exclamation, and more rumbling ensued. Another attack was headed their way...

" Above again! It's his head!" Tohma warned. " Follow me!"

Another long length of scales, even bigger than the tails, came looming upon them.

CRASH! ShineGreymon had followed MirageGaogamon to an area to dodge the head attack, which had also sent the water flood up in tidal waves over them. When the wave settled back down, the growling of the Demon Lord shook through the atmosphere as blood-shot eyes stared at the DATS members.

ShineGreymon sent another Glorious Burst at his face as soon as he had his opportunity. Again, the attack just fizzled away as it hit the Demon Lord's skin.

" You humans... aren't even big enough to be bite-sized snacks for me." He only bared his teeth as he spoke, words slipping through the cracks between them.

Gigantic silver plates covered the rim of his long, alligator snout, further indicating how impenetrable his skin was. Masaru frowned. Rather than being the physically strongest Digimon, Masaru saw him as more as the most-troublesome-to-beat-up type of Digimon. All they could see in their range of view was his head now, and it was already more than what looked physically manageable.

Tohma stepped onto ShineGreymon to whisper into Masaru's ear. " Masaru, we need to provoke him into opening his mouth long enough for us to get inside."

" Inside...?"

" It's the only way to defeat him. Catch my drift?"

Masaru shuddered. " So that's what you meant... Well, too bad I can't argue with you there..."

After nodding in confirmation, Tohma jumped back onto MirageGaogamon.

" Hey, Leviamon! I heard your mom likes cheap fruit cakes!"

And then he nearly fell off.

" M...Masaru, that's not what I meant by..."

" And that she hasn't polished her snout in over 100 years! It's probably rusted off by now! And under it all is all this rotted moldy mildew!"

" WHAT?! Who's my mom?!" came the irritated response. But Leviamon's mouth remained shut.

" ......"

" Masaru, the Digimon don't normally know the concept of parents, remember?"

" Oh right. Well, it looks like YOU haven't polished your snout in 100 years too! What's with that icky color? Blugh!"

" ......" Tohma gave him a look that made it seem like he was regretting his suggestion, and that Masaru should just stick to punching things. Yeah, Masaru knew it himself too.

But to their surprise, Leviamon's eyes flared up and he started waving his head around, forcing the other two Ultimates to drift back in order to dodge his movements.

" Don't you DARE insult my snout!"

" Ohh, are you sensitive about your snout, Levi-chan~?" Masaru continued as he hung onto ShineGreymon while they moved. " It's so big and ugly that I bet all of the other Demon Lords talk about how big and ugly it is behind your back!"

" They wouldn't dare!!" Leviamon roared. His eyes flared up even more, and huge puffs of air started coming out of his nostrils...

" Whoa, I can't believe this is actually working," Masaru said, wondering if he actually made an accomplishment or not.

Tohma's gaze widened at the Demon Lord's behavior. " Rainbow smoke..."

Indeed, the puffs of air coming out of Leviamon's nostrils were rainbow colored.

" There's enough room... MirageGaogamon, ShineGreymon, go in through the nostrils, and don't stop until I say it's clear... NOW!"

" Yes, Master!"

" Eh?!"

No sooner had Tohma given the command when MirageGaogamon dived in without hesitation. ShineGreymon had no choice but to follow.

Tohma had timed it just so that Leviamon had finished the exhale that was needed to produce the rainbow puffs of air. As they glided through the long tunnel of Leviamon's nostril, the light of the Burst Modes guiding their way, a force started pulling them in...

Leviamon was inhaling. Even if he had seen the Digimon enter, he had no choice but to since he used up all his air supply in the exhale. The force of his inhale sent the Ultimates tumbling in, and soon they saw other tunnels ahead of them, leading out of the nostril into other parts of the body. However, as soon as they saw the tunnels, Leviamon started trying to puff them out. Humongous puffs of air pressured against them, trying to send them tumbling out again. ShineGreymon and MirageGaogamon clung onto the bumpy surface of the nostril walls, as uncomfortable as they were.

Masaru saw that one of the tunnels had a flap that kept flipping around as Leviamon sniffed.

" Take the path without the enclosing flap!" Tohma shouted, as if recognizing what Masaru was thinking.

They timed their leaps into the tunnel with Leviamon's futile attempts to force them out. With that, they no longer had to worry about Leviamon's respiratory system trying to defy them, and they headed down towards the digestive system.

And then things started getting really slimy. And Masaru didn't want to go into all of the gory details.

If there was one thing that wasn't so bad, it was combining ShineGreymon Burst Mode and MirageGaogamon Burst Mode's attacks in Leviamon's insides and literally finding the light back to the surface, although that surface was still covered in water. But coordinating that single attack felt so nostalgic to him, he truly felt he'd gone through so much in the past few months just for that blissful moment of glory. It had been possibly the most awkward fight he'd ever gone through, but the satisfaction he had gotten out of it was still the same--in fact, even better. He was cheering in joy as they made their way out.

Leviamon's Digiegg hovered in MirageGaogamon's direction as they continued to stay above the water. After securing it, Tohma pulled out his DigiWindow and activated a program that seemed to cause no physical effect on the Digiegg.

" Huh? I thought none of us were supposed to be able to see it after this Digital Code thing was activated," Masaru noted.

" I've only suspended its hatching function. After we secure all of the Digieggs, I'll apply the final part of the Digital Code," Tohma explained.

" Oh. Sounds like a plan."

" It is."

Masaru crossed his arms as he renewed his stance on ShineGreymon's shoulder.

" Masaru."

" Hm?"

" ...Good to have you back."

Masaru looked at the blond, dumbfounded. Come to think of it, Tohma was the only one who hadn't given him a direct "welcome back" like most of the others had. Sure, Tohma hosted the party to celebrate it (or was that really for him....), but while Masaru had heard it from the others, this was the first he'd heard from his closest teammate.

But this felt more natural somehow. He didn't feel like he was truly "back" until he'd gotten some action, after all. And Tohma knew that...

" Thanks, it's good to BE back," he said after a pause. " Hmph, you're pretty late to come out with it too. It's about time."

Despite the sarcasm he threw at the end, he was smiling almost uncontrollably on the inside. Live the moment while you can.

They exchanged some smirks with each other, and then mutually, they gazed out into the water, waiting for a sign from the others.

" Is this water going to clear out on its own?" Masaru wondered idly.

" I'd assume it would sink back into the ground eventually."

Just staring at it reminded Masaru of his hydrotherapy sessions. Of course, now that he had fully recovered, he was tingling to see if he could outswim Tohma, but he knew it wasn't really the appropriate situation for it.

Even so, Tohma was soon pulling on his arm for some reason.

" You've got... grime all over you. At least take a dive to wash it off. The water here should be all right."

He hadn't noticed, but now that he looked at himself, it did look pretty disgusting. Leviamon's insides weren't exactly what he'd call clean... He jumped off ShineGreymon's shoulder, with Tohma soon following behind him.

The feeling of the water enveloping him and washing away the grime was much welcome. The area flooding had created such a mass of water that he thought he was snorkeling in the deep ocean without snorkeling gear, or without any of the sea creatures or sandy bottom one would expect to see. The bottom he was seeing was still pitch black. The surroundings were pitch black as well, and with only the illumination from the exhaust of their Digimon above them, reflecting off the water's surface, Masaru almost felt like he was lost underwater. He kicked around, enjoying the open space, but remaining uneasy with the darkness. With such limited lighting, he could hardly see anything around him except darkness.

He heard the motions of someone swimming nearby. Tohma. The exhaust lights reflecting off him made him stand out among the rest of the darkness, just like the moonlight had on that night of their sleepover...

Masaru was tempted to dive into him, catch him by surprise from behind, just to see the blond's reaction.

It really was good to be back. With Tohma...

He didn't actually get time to make that dive, however. The next moment, a brusque sound disturbed the peace and Masaru and Tohma found themselves getting carried out of the water by their Digimon. Masaru was about to shout out in protest, but he soon saw that the huge mass of water beneath them was rapidly dissipating into the distance...

" What's going on?"

Just as the last drop of water disappeared, Minervamon was thrown out of the darkness into Masaru and Tohma's view. She looked fairly beaten down, collapsed over the floor, but her will to fight was at full power. Immediately, they could tell things weren't looking so great for them.

" Minervamon!" Tohma called out.

" Damn you, Lilithmon..." she said between gritted teeth.

ShineGreymon and MirageGaogamon landed themselves on the now-dry surface next to Minervamon, allowing their partners to help bring her back to her feet.

" She's using all the dirty, worst tricks in the book. At this rate, BanchouLeomon's going to..."

Masaru breath got caught in his throat.

She didn't need to say any more. The image of Lilithmon towering over a fallen BanchouLeomon had appeared before them.

" BanchouLeomon!"

He started running towards them, frantic to make sure the banchou was okay. What was that about being fine on their own?!

BanchouLeomon staggered to push himself up with his arms. He looked even more battered and bruised than Minervamon, and something about him...

" Masaru, stay back!" BanchouLeomon barked, struggling to stay up.

" Indeed, you don't want to be around when this next one hits," Lilithmon said with a sinister giggle at the end. She held something small and liquid-like in her deformed hand... " Because this one's going to end whoever it hits. You made your mistake when you started bringing yourselves into Asgard."

Masaru's eyes widened. " Haa?"

Minervamon staggered up right next to the ponytail man at that moment, and then it seemed like the world had frozen for a moment except for Lilithmon. The object from her deformed hand spewed a single, almost invisible thread, as quick as lightning, through BanchouLeomon's chest...

" Nazar Nail Darkness Pain."

And when the world stopped freezing, the great lion man cried out in pain.

" BANCHOULEOMON!!"

----  
Author blab

----  
I assume all of their digital equipment is waterproof since they get tossed around in the water in the show sometimes and nothing happens to their devices. xD

Lilithmon's attack was a combination of her usual attacks, in various ways. Long attack name is long and not official.

I'm sure Leviamon wasn't so troublesome in the PS2 game either. Agh I want a modded PS2.~


	9. Chapter 9

In perfect sync, Minervamon and Masaru came at Lilithmon, Masaru with his fist charged and Minervamon with her sword poised to gore.

The Demon Lord had been preoccupied with the pleasure she had gotten out of her heinous act and didn't even have time to react. Within the next second, Lilithmon's agonized scream mixed in with the final echoes of BanchouLeomon's. Unlike Lilithmon's blow, Masaru and Minervamon gave her no room to even feel her wound. Minervamon had slashed her accursed arm, Masaru her abdominal area, and she was gone in a flash, replaced by a Digiegg with ornate purple swirls. Their combination had been so perfect, yet neither of them cared to rejoice their victory.

Not giving the Digiegg a second glance, Minervamon put away her weapon and shield and went to BanchouLeomon's side, inspecting the spot where he'd been pierced.

" You defeated her..." his first words were muted.

" BanchouLeomon, this wound..."

" ...It won't heal."

" What?"

The other Digimon de-evolved and went up to BanchouLeomon with the others.

" This attack... is a concentration of all the water Leviamon had brought forth. It's taking over my body and will poison me soon. There's not enough time to stop it," BanchouLeomon said, resolute in his end.

" No..." Minervamon almost whimpered, lifting him in her arms.

" Minervamon, Masaru, Agumon, Tohma, Gaomon..." BanchouLeomon said slowly, deliberately. Each one looked back at him desperately as he called their names.

Tears started spilling out of Minervamon's serpent eyes. " That DAMN Lilithmon! She... She used an illusion of Mercurimon to thwart us... I should have known... I should have known...!"

" Don't blame yourself, Minervamon. I was... the one to make the mistake."

" But I..."

" Minervamon," BanchouLeomon repeated, not letting his warrior friend continue on the subject, " Go to the dojo. There's a hidden panel in there I want you to check. Near the chimney..."

" BanchouLeomon..." Minervamon said, distressed.

" BanchouLeomon!" the others said frantically in unison.

The lion man smiled at them with his remaining strength, glad to hear his name. " Sorry I couldn't stay with you longer... Masaru, there's one very important thing I have to tell you."

" ...What is it?"

" There's no need... to search for your father anymore. You won't find him."

" ...What?" Masaru's eyes widened.

" Suguru has... passed on already..."

" No..."

" As will I..."

" No!"

Masaru lunged forward to grab onto BanchouLeomon, but the moment he made contact, the banchou's surface became transparent and his hands slipped through. Gradually, BanchouLeomon faded away, and in Minervamon's arms, only a Digiegg remained. It was patterned in Digisoul squares.

There was no blood, yet the amount of grief in the tears she spilled on that spot weighed that of a full ocean of it, at least in her consciousness.

Yoshino, Ikuto and their Digimon approached not long after, celebrating their victory until they saw the extra Digiegg in Minervamon's weeping position. Then they too joined the mourning.

" We need to go to the dojo and find whatever it is he left for Minervamon. The least we can do right now is follow his final request," Tohma told them quietly.

" We'll go with you," Yoshino volunteered. Ikuto stood beside her, trying to hold back his own tears.

Masaru could tell that the little boy had wanted to cry.

He'd gone into the fight, fully assuming that they'd all come out flawlessly victorious. And he had assumed BanchouLeomon was the most invincible among them.

Yet there he was, reduced to a Digiegg in Minervamon's arms. Those powerful arms and legs, the cool mouth leaf, the symbolizing cap, the sight of his prideful gakuran flapping against the wind, all gone. All through an attack that he barely even saw.

Just like the time with Mercurimon.

Even the greatest beings could meet their downfall from the smallest occurrences...

Masaru stared at the spot where BanchouLeomon had been just a moment ago. Impossible...

And as if he had enough trouble believing what had just happened in front of his eyes, what BanchouLeomon had said about his father...

He couldn't bring himself to tell Yoshino and Ikuto about it.

In the dojo, they inspected everything near the chimney, looking for any sign of what BanchouLeomon had spoken to them of. It was Ikuto who dug through the old fire logs and found the hidden panel under the ashes.

And inside it was a metal safe with a password lock. Ikuto pulled it out and showed it to Masaru, who looked at it curiously.

" So what's the password?"

" I think I have an idea," Tohma said as he went up to the lock, which had its own QWERTY keyboard. He entered in "DGOS" followed by a long series of numbers that none of the others could catch up to remember, except possibly Gaomon. The lock authorized the password and opened up the safe, much to the others' amazement, although Tohma didn't look too impressed with himself as he finished the password.

Inside was a giant letter marked MINERVAMON. Masaru picked it up.

" Looks like he left this letter for you... Did he know this was going to happen?" Yoshino remarked.

Minervamon stared at her letter in Masaru's hand, looking frankly quite lost. Masaru handed the letter to her.

" So what are you going to do?" Masaru asked her.

" I'm... not sure what to do..." she said forlornly, lips still quivering. " Is it all right if I go back to your mansion, Tohma? I need a room to myself for a while."

" You're certainly more than welcome."

She tightly clutched the envelope to her chest along with BanchouLeomon's Digiegg.

" We better head back so we can seal up these menaces for good too," Yoshino said as she looked upon Beelzebumon's egg in her arms. She clicked her transmission earpiece to make contact with the headquarters back in the real world as they left the dojo.

Masaru looked at the envelope in Minervamon's hands. More questions were flooding his head by the second.

Back in the real world, they arranged all seven of the Demon Lords' Digieggs in a massive, grave-like hole in the ground. Tohma brought out his Digiwindow as the rest of the DATS team and Minervamon watched. They watched the final activation of the Digital Code and as the Digieggs soon disappeared from their sight. Kurosaki and Shirakawa came in with machinery to bury the hole.

They had just made a huge success in bringing peace to their worlds, yet the mood was hardly celebratory.

All of the humans had come dressed in black, as if attending a funeral. It had been cloudy noon, as if rain wanted to come down, but it wouldn't rain.

Minervamon refused to let go of BanchouLeomon's egg ever since they came back to the real world. She stood through the event tightly holding onto it the whole time. Afterwards, she said she would be heading back to her room to open her envelope.

Satsuma had told them all to take the rest of the day off, which everybody accepted with few comments.

Masaru watched Tohma speak some words of condolence to the ancient Digimon as the rest of the people departed the site.

Despite not being very close to her, Masaru could sympathize with her situation. She had just lost her only remaining friend in the Digital World. After seeing how upset she could get about Mercurimon, he could only imagine how much she was suffering now, having to deal with losing both Digimon.

Masaru had no idea what to say to her up in person, however. He couldn't expect her to know anything about his father, or fathers in general...

No, she probably did know. After all, she'd read so much about the humans through their literature. But she had plenty on her mind already.

He was about to say something to her when she leapt high into the air and disappeared, heading off on her own towards Tohma's mansion.

Perhaps it was better that way. He was mourning BanchouLeomon's loss too, but things were complicated for him in other ways.

" Masaru. About your father..."

Tohma and Masaru were riding in Tohma's limousine, away from the burial site. The others had left to go home for the day, and Masaru couldn't bring in any mood to refuse Tohma when he offered the ride.

" As much as I looked up to BanchouLeomon... I can't get myself to believe that."

" A banchou never lies... but..."

It was too much for him to take all at once. He was devastated enough that BanchouLeomon was taken down, the thought of someone even closer to him gone even before that wasn't registering in his mind.

He did remember, however, how BanchouLeomon had mentioned his father once, back when he was in such a confused state of mind back at the DATS shelter. Back when he had forgotten who he was fighting for...

He was fighting for the Digimon, right?

Fighting for his comrades, his loved ones... his father...

Now he wondered if it was really all for his father in the end. Like Tohma had spent so many years searching for a cure for his little sister, Masaru had been chasing after his father all this time. Was it truly all for naught?

Tohma sighed. " I said I'd tell you something after the battle, but now..."

" I still want you to tell me."

" You won't believe me."

" Try me... I doubt you could say anything more unbelievable than what just happened today."

" It would be... for you," Tohma said solemnly.

" What do you mean by that?"

Tohma didn't say anything for a while, just giving Masaru a look that plainly said "don't regret you made me say this..." As the limousine came to a stop at a traffic light, the fighter just edged him on to get going with what he was going to say. Tohma took a deep breath before continuing.

" Your father... was BanchouLeomon."

The hell?

Impossible. It sounded like a big joke to him. BanchouLeomon was BanchouLeomon, not his...

But Tohma wouldn't joke with something like this... Masaru knew that, but...

The hell. Just because he was having difficulty believing his father was no longer alive...

That was too much. That was crossing the line. He wasn't going to stand getting toyed around like this.

" Don't fuck with me!"

He sent a massive force of his fist into Tohma's cheek. He froze as he saw Tohma tumble back in the vehicle, almost hitting his head on the side.

What did he just do...

He seriously wasn't thinking clearly.

" ...I gotta leave."

Before he really knew what he was doing, he opened the vehicle door to the streets and ran out, ignoring the couple people who stared at him from the sidewalk.

Without looking behind himself, he ran. The sounds of few, scattered people in the streets around him fell empty on his ears, the view of the street signs were all a blur. Yet, he soon knew where his body was making him go.

After a long run, changing from the solid pavement, there was the crunch of rock and sand below his feet. He found himself at a playground near his old elementary school. No one else was within sight, as the grey clouds overhead had kept all the visitors away. He knew this playground. He knew that swing set, that seesaw, that sandbox, those monkey bars...

Pathetic. He'd just run away, he realized. Purely out of the guilt from punching Tohma for saying that during his current state of mind...

He slumped onto the swing set, idly kicking his feet against the rocks on the ground.

State of mind? What state of mind? He could hardly think about anything now. His mind and body seemed to have both gone blank and cold.

" Aniki..."

He felt a jolt at the quiet voice. He'd forgotten about Agumon, still in the Digivice in his suit pocket.

" Agumon..." he said as he brought out the Digivice to face his partner. " Sorry I can't let you out right now... I... I don't feel like going home yet."

" Are you feeling okay?" his Digimon asked worriedly.

" Don't worry about me... Are you hungry or anything?"

" Just a little sleepy right now... It's been so long since I evolved, I ended up using all my energy for that fight!"

" Oh... that's for sure."

The slightest of smiles started to creep onto his expression, relieved to hear Agumon's words. Even in this situation, there was still someone who could talk to him like nothing had changed. And how thankful he was for that...

" You were great today, Agumon."

" So were you, Aniki..."

Masaru was almost waiting to see if the yellow Digimon would go on about how awesome he was, but it ended up as a long yawn instead. Masaru smiled anyway.

" Hurry up and get some sleep. You can come out when I get back home, all right?"

" Oookayyy..."

He swung at the swing set for a few minutes, barely noticing the dark clouds overhead starting to churn more rapidly. He still didn't feel like going home... His mother and Chika were out at one of Chika's friend's for a day-long birthday party anyway. They weren't planning to come back until the evening. If he were to come home now, no one would be there. And when they did get home, what would Masaru tell them...

The swing slowly came to a stop as he stopped moving. The wind started blowing in harder, causing him to rock back and forth a bit.

And then he saw Tohma in front of him, the blond shooting silent daggers at him with his eyes.

" How'd you find me..."

" I had Gaomon lend a nose." Tohma took hold of Masaru's wrist while Masaru still had his hands on the swing bars.

Ah... was he going to get the payback punch? It'd only be natural...

But instead, the blond said, " It's going to rain any moment now... Let's move somewhere else."

Masaru hesitated to look at Tohma as Tohma practically dragged him up off the swing. No punch... Although, honestly, he was kind of hoping for it.

" Don't bother with me."

" You're probably hungry. We haven't eaten since we went out for the battle. Want to suggest a place to eat?"

Although he knew Tohma was fiercely gazing at him, the blond's words were quite generous for having been punched just earlier...

And he was right, Masaru was hungry. He'd been ignoring his stomach because of all the other things on his mind.

He sighed quietly to himself. " You're not my physician anymore, you know."

" I'm not asking you as a physician, Masaru..."

Masaru suddenly returned Tohma's gaze, and they had a slight staring contest until Masaru cleared his throat.

" This is the playground where I fell off the monkey bars and got the injury on my forehead when I was little," he said out of the blue, walking up to the mentioned monkey bars. He used to awe at the height of the bars back then, always having to jump with all his might in order to reach them, but now he could easily grab onto them with his feet flat on the ground.

Tohma eased his expression to one of slight surprise, but he didn't say anything.

" I was here with my father. My head was bleeding a lot... He carried me and ran all the way from here to the hospital that day." Masaru grabbed the monkey bars with one hand, wandered under with a slow swing, then pointed another direction with his other hand. " Otherwise, we'd often eat at the ramen house on the way back home, over that way."

Suddenly, Tohma went under the monkey bars with him and grabbed the pointing hand as he passed by. " Then let's go there. I'll pay."

Masaru felt himself get pulled along somewhat forcefully. " Hey, wait! Fine, fine." He shook off Tohma's hand and started following the blond towards the direction he had indicated.

They went in silence, the most noise coming from their rushed steps and the increasingly heavy, blowing wind whisking through them. He felt something unsettling about Tohma rushing them the entire way, but he went along anyway.

It was for the better, since as soon as they shut the glass door entrance to the ramen house behind them, the rain started pouring. It happened at amazing timing, really.

" Yo, Masaru-kun," the restaurant owner behind the counter said. His eyes opened wide at their appearance. " What's the occasion? It's rare to see you on a day like this. And who's this person you've brought with you? He looks really familiar..."

Tohma picked up his mental guard as the man peered at him. The blond was obviously regretting that he didn't put his public disguise on.

But the older man just shook his head after a while. " Well, no matter. Come have something to eat. That's what you're here for, right?"

There was no one else in the restaurant for the time being, seeing as they had arrived after usual lunch hours and the weather was... as it was.

Masaru sat down on one of the counter chairs like it was his second nature and then went on to blank out. Tohma followed his example and cast his eyes briefly on the menu written on the boards at the top of the walls.

" Which one do you like the most?" Tohma asked.

Masaru gave him a delayed response even though the question was easy for him. " The house special... there's nothing else like it."

" All right, then let's get two of those. Unless you want something else?"

" ...Whatever," Masaru said, continuing to give that blank stare.

The man behind the counter blinked at the atmosphere between the two boys, but then he clapped his hands together. " Two house specials on the way!" He went behind the small drape cloth that led to the kitchen to prepare the order.

The sound of the heavy rain outside and the shuffling of kitchen preparation occupied them for a few minutes.

Masaru put an elbow on the counter and rested his forehead on his hand. " Tohma, you know how it's like to lose one of your parents, don't you?"

" ...How do you know about..."

" I overheard you talking to your father yesterday, upstairs in your mansion."

" ..." Tohma's expression changed, as if he were feeling guilty that Masaru had heard that conversation.

But Masaru looked past it, lifting his face from his hand to stare up at the blond. " What am I supposed to do now, Tohma..."

He really was an idiot. A big, freaking idiot.

He knew Tohma wasn't lying when he said BanchouLeomon was his father. Tohma had known and he hadn't. Even if Tohma was a genius, this was Masaru's own father. He had no excuses. It hurt all the more realizing how oblivious he'd been for something so important.

" What did you do when she passed away?"

Tohma responded slowly. " ...I cried. I cried a lot. I was only six years old back then. And it happened right in front of my eyes..."

" In front of your eyes..."

" It was a traffic accident. We were walking towards a festival, and a truck..." He didn't finish his sentence.

The pattering of the rain outside gave them white noise as Masaru let things sink in. He'd wanted to know, yet now that he did, he wasn't sure what to make of it.

But there was one thing he did know for sure...

" All right! Two house specials, ready for ya!" came the sudden call from the kitchen. Two large bowls of noodles were served before them, each with a freshly-cracked-open egg resting on the top.

" That was fast..." Tohma commented.

" Yeah. Hiroshi's great like that. Thanks for the food," Masaru said as he took a set of chopsticks and split them.

And right then, the rain let up. There was nothing but a light sprinkle out now, making the brevity of the pour just earlier seem like a lie.

" I'm gonna head out to the back for a bit and check up on some stocks. You guys can take your time and all. And thanks for comin'!"

As the owner left, leaving the two alone in the restaurant, Tohma blinked. " Is it really okay for him to be leaving the place alone with just us around?"

" Yeah, he trusts me like that."

Tohma split his own set of chopsticks and began eating... perhaps a little too soon, since he started puffing on the insides of his mouth to relieve himself from the heat.

" Give it a couple more minutes, man," Masaru said, grinning a little.

" Mm, I knew that... It's really good though."

Masaru grinned some more. " Isn't it?"

The brunet leaned over the counter again, this time resting his chin on his hand. They watched quietly as steam rose from their noodle bowls.

Ah... of all things to happen, he didn't think he'd be sitting there, sharing a meal with Tohma right now. So much had happened in such a short time, and now he was finally free to ask the things that were on his mind, yet he now also had a bazillion extra things on his mind.

The best thing to do, he figured, was punch his way through them.

" You grew up with her while she was still around?"

" Huh?"

" Your mother..."

" Oh... yes, I did."

" Was she nice?"

" Of course..."

" Do you miss her?"

" Of course I do..."

" What do you miss?"

" I miss..."

Yes, this kind of punching. Bombarding. Bombarding with questions, questions coming to the top of his mind that were trying to plague him. Slowly, he could allow himself to ask them, to get them out of his mind.

Because it seemed Tohma was willing to answer now.

He knew it was only putting more into his mind as Tohma answered questions about his mother, yet he was welcoming it. Both of them were welcoming it.

They continued to have small talk about Tohma's mother over their food, and Masaru slowly came to realize once more... Tohma wasn't as different from him as he'd thought. He wasn't just some high-in-the-sky nobleman prince living in a completely different world full of genius-intellect science. He yearned to go goldfish scooping at the local festivals, to try out the new dumpling food stall that opened up, to play in the park and see all the dogs in the neighborhood on their walk... his childhood had really been a lot like Masaru's. It was just that while Masaru had the most memories with his father, Tohma had for his mother...

Tohma was right there, talking frankly to him about his deceased mother, about these issues Masaru had trouble bringing up to his own family. It was such a strange feeling...

Yet as time passed, as the rain started to die down outside, he was starting to understand more and more what these feelings were.

And he could sense that they both knew... while they were avoiding the subject, Masaru knew that he had to face it sooner or later.

He had to face a lot of things sooner or later...

The owner, Hiroshi, came back after a while, and Masaru finally gave him and Tohma a proper introduction before Tohma paid for the meal. It was pretty obvious by then that Hiroshi recognized the blond from a certain long-passed television program, but he mentioned nothing of it, and they bid their farewells afterwards.

The rain had ceased altogether by then.

" Are you ready to go home yet, Masaru?"

" Ready..." Masaru reiterated, noticing the wording. " Mom and Chika shouldn't be home for a few more hours. But... I might as well head back anyway. Thanks for the meal, Tohma."

" I'll walk with you back home too."

" Ah?" Masaru tried stopping the heat from rushing into his cheeks but he wasn't sure if it worked. " You don't have to-"

" Until your mother and Chika come back at least... You'll need someone with you."

Masaru frowned at him. " I've got Agumon with me. And even without him, I'd be fine."

" No offense, but Agumon's not enough. Not for this."

Masaru's eyes widened at the blond. Tohma was being awfully assertive...

" Fine. Do what you want." He started heading back home, just a few streets down the road. He was rather disgruntled that Tohma was being so stubborn, but at the same time, he was happy for it... although he wouldn't admit it.

Tohma, who had been constantly avoiding certain matters between them in his irritatingly slick way, was now directly involving himself. Whatever had brought about the change, Masaru wasn't about to push it away without seeing where it'd go.

As they turned the corner to the street where Masaru's house was, Minervamon stood in their view. Her sudden appearance gave Masaru déjà-vu, as he realized BanchouLeomon had once done something similar.

" Whoa, what brings you here, Minervamon?" he asked.

She simply pointed to Masaru's chest, confusing the ponytailed man in the black suit.

" You've got a metal hexagonal pin, don't you?"

" It's a tag, not a pin, but yeah, I do."

" Can I see it?"

Masaru blinked. " Sure..."

His suit was already unbuttoned, so he dug out the tag from his undershirt and showed it to Minervamon, although he kept the chain around his neck.

" It really is the same..." Minervamon unclipped the hexagonal pin from her forelocks and brought it up next to Masaru's tag to compare them. " In that case, these are for you."

" Huh?"

Minervamon flashed two envelopes in front of his face, slightly smaller than the one she had received earlier.

Masaru took the envelopes with an even more confused look on his face.

" What are these?"

" That's for you to find out. I'll be gone now... I need more time to myself," Minervamon said quickly. And she was gone in an instant.

The labels on the envelopes stated "MASARU" and "DAIMON FAMILY" respectively.

" ...Call me overprotective, but I'm going to see what's in my envelope before I tell Mom and Chika about this other one."

Tohma said nothing in objection.

They arrived in front of the Daimon residence.

" You're going to see what's inside your envelope, right? Let me come with you."

Masaru gave him a funny look.

" But..."

" I know it's addressed to you only, but... just this once, let me make this selfish request."

That got him. For once, Tohma was asking something of him. Tohma, who always seemed to have things set the way he wanted, without bothering to ask...

Tohma stared at him straight in the eyes.

He was asking, yet Masaru knew he couldn't refuse anyway.

Was he surrendering? Which one of them was surrendering?

" All right. Come up with me."

Masaru realized Agumon from his Digivice, only to find that Agumon was still dead asleep, so Tohma asked Gaomon to keep Agumon company downstairs while the reptile napped on the couch.

Closing his room door behind him, Masaru sat down on his bed while Tohma kept to standing, although Masaru had invited him to sit next to him.

He thought twice about it after Tohma politely refused. Tohma, he...

Blah, it was too much to think about all at once. The envelope in front of him that was calling out first.

He broke the seal on the envelope. Inside was a single letter, which Masaru unfolded and took a heavy glance through before starting to take in the words written on it. With mixed feelings, he started reading it out loud for Tohma.

" Dear Masaru,  
If you are reading this letter, then it must mean BanchouLeomon directed you to it. This is from your father, Daimon Suguru."

His heart jumped.

" Dad..."

He soon gave into reading it silently to himself, and Tohma sat down next to him on the bed anyway to read over his shoulder.

" About eight years ago, in my search for Yggdrasil and not long after meeting BanchouLeomon, I fell ill to a deadly digital virus for which there was no cure at the time. I had frantically attempted to discover a cure, with BanchouLeomon carefully aiding me with my research and health needs. However, when I reached a certain stage, seeing my body as a deadly contaminant, Yggdrasil appeared before me and sought to delete me.

I begged Yggdrasil to spare me. I had so much left to do for my family, after all. Yggdrasil wouldn't have any of it. Just when I was about to lose hope, BanchouLeomon came in and stood up for me. He offered his body as a container for my soul since only my body was the one that was contaminated. However, he couldn't bring my soul into himself on his own, since doing so would force the virus upon him. That's when Yggdrasil offered to transfer my soul into BanchouLeomon without the risk of transferring the virus.

Yggdrasil would only do this transfer on specific conditions. One, it wanted to keep BanchouLeomon under tracking for maintenance purposes, in the case that a human soul inside a Digimon would cause any harm. Two, I would never be allowed to tell anyone directly that BanchouLeomon was housing Daimon Suguru's soul, in the slightest case that the wrong being would find out and try to exploit the generosity Yggdrasil was offering. I had no better option than to agree to these conditions.

But I am still glad I did accept. If I hadn't, I would have never gotten to see my son achieve the Burst Mode, my proudest proof of our connection to the Digimon. You've carried it well, Masaru, as I knew you would.

If you are reading this letter, then it also must mean my time has come. I'm sorry it had to come to this before I could tell you. I wanted to tell you earlier, but again, our agreement with Yggdrasil meant that it would not be a possibility while I was still watching over you.

Although my soul may continue on with the Digimon, it's time for us to move on. I'm sure you'll be fine, Masaru. You've already proven yourself to me. I'll always be proud to have you as my son.

-Daimon Suguru"

Masaru's hands started shaking as he read the last parts of the letter, and to stop himself, he let Tohma hold it instead.

This is what it boiled down to?

" When it's written out in his handwriting like this, I've got no choice, do I? He's really gone..."

He couldn't bring himself to say anything. He knew Tohma was there next to him, possibly waiting for some kind of response. But it was the fact that Tohma was there that he couldn't bring himself to do anything. Yet it was also because Tohma was there that he knew there was something more, and he wanted to know what it was.

" I've known... for a while..."

Masaru gave him a prodding look. What was he talking about?

" Back when he gave me that hint for the development of the Digital Code. I kept thinking about who else would know that much about that end of digital research, and there was simply no possible way it could be someone else."

So that's what had been on his mind back then...

" I had no idea this would've happened... that BanchouLeomon would..."

Ten years of being missing, and now when he finally found out where his father had been, he had already passed on, both in body and soul? He'd been with them the whole time, yet they had to stay in the dark about it until it was too late?

" Why didn't you talk to me about it earlier..."

" I couldn't ask him to confirm it. and I didn't feel it was in my right to ask about it anyway..."

Masaru's shoulders slumped. He wanted to believe it was impossible. He had no indication that BanchouLeomon had his father's soul dwelling within him this whole time. No... he did have indications. He just hadn't read into them that far. It was his own fault.

He found out too late. He never even got to call his father's name to him.

His mother never got to call him affectionately again.

Chika never got to call him either. She had never once gotten to call his father in her whole life.

He'd been standing with them, fighting with them all those months, and he had no idea... his father's own son had no idea.

" He really was my father..."

Tohm a put the letter on a nearby desk and stood next to Masaru as the ponytailed fighter held his face between his hands. Masaru could feel a shock jolting throughout his body. He didn't know what to do.

" But he'll be reborn, right? It's not as if he's completely gone..."

" He won't retain his memories when the Digiegg hatches."

" You don't know that for sure! I mean, Agumon was able to keep his memories..."

" Your father said in the letter that he was ready to move on, Masaru. He's... he's gone."

Masaru sensed his eyes blur out at Tohma's words. Tohma was only telling him the truth. If only he had known. If only he had been stronger...

And he hated the feeling. Even Tohma had figured it out before him. How many times had he told himself that he needed to be stronger already? When would it ever be enough? When was it ever enough?

Was this what Minervamon felt like after finding out what happened to Mercurimon? There was no way his father could...

Who was he kidding. What was he trying to deny... His father was gone. And he'd never come back.

" He's gone..." Masaru repeated blankly. Memories of his father flashed through his mind, memories of them playing catch ball, running out in the fields... " I've been hoping to find him after all this time, and now..."

The banchou's words were starting to echo in his head.

' Even warriors are allowed to cry for their lost comrades. But denying them will do them no honor.'

Those words were for Minervamon, but he probably would've said something similar right now, if he were there... wouldn't he?

If Masaru could see BanchouLeomon one more time, would he be there to comfort him like he did for Minervamon? Would he gently put his hand on Masaru's head again, and would he say something similar about Minervamon's warrior traits for Masaru's manliness?

Would they be BanchouLeomon's words, or Daimon Suguru's? Both? Did it matter?

And just as if the banchou were there right now, he felt a great warmth wrap around him, urging him to sink in with it.

He soaked up the heat and let himself get carried away for a moment... and then he realized who was actually there.

Tohma had his arms around him, holding him close to his chest, leaning in on bent knees.

He ceased to breathe for a moment. What... Why... were the two words that ran through his mind... He backed up.

" Tohma..."

Tohma wouldn't say anything back. He simply remained with a resolute face that silently declared that he was there, and it was just the two of them and no one else. He needed no words to say that.

Masaru stared at him. No way he'd allow his pride to do that... he wanted to tell himself, but the banchou's words would just come back to his head and he'd be lost about what to do again.

But soon all thoughts came to null as the warmth overtook him and Tohma's presence engulfed him. Between his arms, he was giving Masaru a place to bury his head and let it all out.

And so Masaru did. That regretful area in his heart that he'd hope to never feel again erupted against his consciousness, and the tears spilled out without restraint.

Tohma soaked in every last drop with his black suit, pressing even further and allowing Masaru to rub his face in.

He was hurting on the inside, worse than he had ever felt before. Even worse than when he had mourned for Piyomon, Mercurimon, the other Digimon. Even worse than when his own legs had their bones snap while being suffocated by his most trusted teammate...

The same teammate who was tightly holding him in now as his rampant tears poured out. He felt Tohma sink next to him on the bed... and before he knew it, Masaru had brought his own arms up to clutch against Tohma's suit, and they were pressed up head on the other's shoulder. Through his blurred vision, Masaru saw the view of the cloudy skies next to his balcony curtains, and he just barely realized what position he was in...

But he was hurting too much to do anything about it. He clung on even tighter, practically digging his nails into the back of Tohma's suit, almost wishing to cause him pain, to make him feel what he was feeling somehow... He knew inside himself, Tohma had already felt this once before. Tohma had felt the pain of losing someone so important, someone he spent years in adoration of. Someone he'd never imagine to lose before his own time was up...

Tohma made no flinching movements, no outraged sound to Masaru's clench. He just sat there, holding Masaru as the young fighter broke down in his arms.

Some time later, when he heard the faint voices of his mother and Chika downstairs talking to the Digimon, Masaru realized he had dozed off and he snapped back up to attention. Tohma still had an arm around him, but it was in a supporting position, as Masaru found out he had drifted off to sleep right there, on the blond's shoulder.

" Ah... sorry..." he muttered to start, avoiding Tohma's eyes.

" No need," Tohma said tersely. He got up from the bed, indicating where the envelopes had been placed on the desk. " The family letter... probably has similar content to yours. I'll leave you to read it privately with them."

Masaru hesitated, peeking a glance at Tohma. Was it just him, or were Tohma's eyes redder than usual? But he hadn't heard...

Tohma started moving towards the door, but Masaru made a grab for his arm before he reached for the knob. The blond looked back at him with a cautious expression.

Masaru had acted before even thinking. What was he doing?

" Tohma... I'm glad you... you made that so-called 'selfish' request."

" Hmm?"

" Make sure you let me repay the favor, all right?"

Tohma slowly nodded, although looking confused. Well, that was all right with him too.

They went downstairs, with Tohma greeting the other Daimons on the way and excusing himself at the same time. Masaru waved as Tohma's butler arrived in the Norstein limousine with incredible timing and drove off with the nobleman. He closed the door behind him as the sight of the vehicle disappeared into the distance.

He paused there at the door for a while, thinking back on what just happened. And in his chest, he felt a fresh clearing, a defogging of the clouded feelings that had washed over him. Not just feelings he had been plagued with that day... everything that had been carrying on within him for the past ten years seemed to have been affected. Those ten years of waiting for his father to return to finally come to this...

He had known Tohma's intentions when he had come in, and he had known it would come down to something so heartbreaking that he wouldn't be able to hold it back in anymore... But somehow, he was starting to feel all right now, knowing he still had the support of those dear to him...

So dear to him...

His mother and Chika came up to him at the doorway, carrying massive bags of groceries in their arms. Sayuri spoke up. " Masaru, Agu-chan's not telling us how things went today. Did something bad happen? And why are you dressed like that?"

He had their envelope with them in the pocket of his suit.

Now, he was finally ready to tell them.

Author blab

Next one's the last...?


	10. Chapter 10

He had never allowed himself to cry like that in front of someone before.

Certainly, he had cried when he was a kid and he had fallen off the monkey bars. The physical amount of pain he had felt was just too much for his little self back then.

Certainly, he had cried amidst the rain when he'd come so close to losing those dear to him. Shouting at his own weaknesses, his own desires to be stronger...

Certainly, he had cried in joy to see his fighting partner back with him both in body and spirit. That moment was short-lived and he had just laughed those tears off, calling them sweat from his heart.

He'd had another bout of the second situation, intensified by the number of years he had anticipated a different outcome.

Moments when he felt so powerless that it was as if the whole world was against him and he couldn't do anything about it...

But it wasn't. It was anything but...

This time, Tohma was there.

He still went to the Norstein mansion the next day to report in to DATS, and also to give back the suit that he had borrowed from Tohma. The operators Kurosaki and Shirakawa noticed the change in Masaru's attitude and asked if something had happened, but he couldn't find it within him to tell them the details yet.

It all felt so surreal, knowing that he no longer had his father to search for. He was finally fully-fledged back in DATS, but nothing felt the same as before.

Nothing felt the same, especially when Tohma came in and saw Masaru in the headquarters with the borrowed suit folded up in a bag.

Remembering the day before, Masaru sensed heat rising up his cheeks as he saw the familiar sight of the blond in his blue DATS uniform. Tohma looked back at him as he usually did, however... that unreadable expression.

" Thanks, Masaru. I'll go take that up now."

Masaru passed the bag over to him and then stood there, unsure of what to do next. Tohma paused and passed a quiet sigh.

" Come back in a few days. We'll be fine handling things here until then. I think we all need some more time to ourselves," he told the brunet.

Masaru could see the reasoning behind his suggestion, but he didn't feel he was so down anymore to need it. He was just... a little lost at that point. " Tohma, I..."

But Tohma had already left.

...What was that about?

' Ehhh?' he thought to himself. Just yesterday, Tohma was so eager to be by his side, but today he was doing a complete 180?

And what did he mean "we all?" As far as Masaru could tell, all of the older people like Captain Satsuma and the girls were completely ready to go about business as usual.

What the heck was that... that tonma thinking?! Masaru was tempted to just chase after the noble upstairs into the Norstein mansion.

Yoshino came up to him just then, thumping some papers on his raised shoulders. " Well, I won't ask why you need a mini-vacation since Tohma said he'd cover for your absence, but there's some paperwork you need to fill out before that."

" Ehhh," he said out loud this time. Even if he was objecting to Tohma's unnecessary concern, more paperwork was the last thing he wanted. " Can't I do it later?"

" No. It's time-sensitive material. I think. But seriously now... just take my sisterly advice and DO IT OR ELSE."

" Geh."

It sounded more like a death threat than sisterly advice, so he obediently went to sit down with Yoshino and the papers at their work desks. Lalamon floated over to rest on top of Yoshino's desk as she drank some tea, and Agumon came by as well. Glimpsing across the top of the papers, Masaru read the headline that said "Employment Data."

" Employment?" he said blankly.

" Well, do you intend to go back to school next semester? As a ninth grader, assuming they'll even let you go on, all you'd be doing is preparing for high school entrance exams anyway," Yoshino stated. " Captain Satsuma did some talking about your achievements for this Demon Lord incident and pleased the higher-ups, so the government's made an exception for you. You're a really special case, you know? Letting you skip a year of compulsory school..."

" So... basically with this, I don't have to go to school anymore?"

" Nope. I mean, come on, you're a savior of the world! Of both worlds! And apparently, it's what you're good at doing, so the government wants you to keep focusing on that. And wouldn't you rather be fighting Digimon instead of sleeping at school?"

" Hey, I'm not ALWAYS sleeping at school."

" But Aniki, didn't you say that there're tons of people to fight in school?" Agumon suddenly joined in the conversation.

" Sure, but..."

Agumon stared at him with his giant, yellow Digimon muzzle.

And that's when it came to him. Even with his father gone, in a way, he was still chasing after him by being with the Digimon. But now, no matter how much he chased, he wouldn't find his old man anymore. His father had moved on.

He wasn't ready to give this up, however.

As long as he still had his feet to run on and his fists to punch, he'd keep fighting. It wasn't just for his father. Masaru was fighting for all of THEM too.

Looking back, he felt a strange distancing from himself remembering how powerless he felt when he had learned of his father's death. He still felt regretful that he hadn't known about BanchouLeomon until it was too late, and for a while, he didn't understand why Daimon Suguru had decided to move on.

But now he understood, and now he felt like he could finally concede with his father's decision. His father was proud of him. Suguru had said that Masaru had proved himself plenty...

It was as if he'd been given permission to focus on goals beyond his old man. His other goals... His goals for the Digimon, his goals for himself.

And even then... it was probably what his father would have wanted him to do.

" There are plenty of guys to fight here too, Agumon. And I definitely like this place more than school. The fights are more interesting, and I've got you," he finished, cracking his partner a smile. He started filling out the papers.

" And Tohma too, right?"

Masaru froze his grip on the pen. Yoshino's eyebrows rose curiously in response to Agumon's statement.

" Hey, so did something happen between you two yet?" she asked Masaru, dripping with casualness in her tone. " Even someone like Agumon's caught on."

" What do you mean, 'Even someone like Agumon?' I only mentioned Tohma because yesterday-"

Masaru smacked a hand on the giant, frog-like face, muffling the rest of Agumon's words.

" Don't talk about other people's business like that!" he warned quickly, a little too frantic to quench Yoshino's curiosity. She raised her eyebrows again as Masaru turned to face her. " I'm still working on it, all right?"

" Working on it," she repeated.

" Yeah..."

" About your own feelings?"

" Err..." He flushed red again, but he stopped caring by then. " There're complications..."

" You said something like that last time too. You're still going on about that?"

" Mmmmmm..."

Yoshino suddenly leaned back on her seat, making a big shrug. " And this is exactly why I offered counseling, you know. Hmph, I should've known."

Masaru pouted shortly and then went back to filling out the papers.

" You know, it'll be really troublesome if we go back to everyone being here at the same time and you guys end up dodging around each other like magnets with the same charge."

" Hey, do you want me to fill these papers out or not?"

" Ah, sorry, sorry."

When Masaru finally finished the papers, he handed them to Yoshino with a bored frown.

" Thank you very much~" she said in similar fashion to his expression, taking the papers, " So I was thinking..."

Masaru stood up and hinted at leaving as he bundled up Agumon into his Digivice.

" Just give him a chance."

He stopped in his steps as he was heading towards the doorway. " Huh?"

" Why don't you just give him a chance and see what happens? Now that this whole crisis is over, isn't it a good time? You said yourself you wanted to get rid of the Demon Lords first or something before doing anything about it, didn't you?"

He turned to face her.

" Or is there something else really so complicated that's stopping you?"

" Err....." He gave it a long thought, mostly considering what had happened yesterday. Honestly, all he could remember was comforting his mother and Chika after telling them the news the night before, and sharing a few moments with Tohma...

He didn't want to dwindle on the time he was pathetically escaping the truth, so he didn't put a drip of effort into remembering some things about the day before. After he factored that out, along with other similar things...

" Maybe there isn't anything that complicated..." he muttered.

" That's just the thing with you boys, you don't even know what's going on yourselves," Yoshino said in an almost forfeiting voice. " Well, do what you want. It's up to you. Just remember my advice, okay? And I guess Tohma's advice to take a break, too. It'll give you time to think if you're up for it."

" Sure, whatever."

He wasn't too happy with Yoshino claiming that he didn't know what was going on, because he was pretty sure he knew by now...

But she was exactly right otherwise. It was up to him...

In the end, he did take Tohma's advice first and stayed home for a few more days to spend some more time with his family, keeping them company while they tried to gain peace of mind from the loss of Daimon Suguru. Masaru's mother had informed Captain Satsuma about the incident and left it to him to inform the rest of the DATS members.

During that time, Masaru thought about everything that had been going on around him, with a renewed sense of what he could do about it all.

It was almost August, and the excess of warm, sunny days truly helped keep their spirits lifted, he felt.

One of those days, when he was out doing shopping errands for the family at the local convenience store, he came across his old schoolmates. He started off with some awkward conversation with them, as they obviously had been wondering about his long disappearance after showing up on national television. He told them about how he had broken both of his legs during a mission, which made the others blink dumbfounded because they couldn't tell a difference, and he had recovered so quickly...

Eventually, he was able to tell them that he wouldn't be coming back the next semester, and he watched them as they nodded back in full understanding, much to his surprise. They even gave him pats on the back and all sorts of other cheer for him. " We won't forget you!" they said. " You'll always be Japan's number one fighter to us."

" We probably won't be able to hang out anymore and we'll grow farther apart, but no matter what happens, we'll still remember you. You'll be in our memories."

Memories. Even though they had used the word in such a casual and corny way, it touched him now more than he would have ever imagined before.

And then he gave them playful punches.

" Idiots, it's not like I'm moving away. Invite me when you go to the game center some time, got it?"

On the day he came back to DATS, Minervamon had finally come out of her room. She seemed to have come to her own resolution, as she came out carrying BanchouLeomon's unhatched Digiegg.

She was even willing to let the rest of the DATS members read her letter from BanchouLeomon. Inside, her friend had given her a request to seek out the other Olympian Gods and Mercurimon, since he was bound to be coming back some day.

In reality, she had been consciously avoiding the rest of the Olympian Gods because her personality in particular was unlike the rest of them. She had only managed to stay close to Mercurimon because of his exceptionally protective and kind nature, while she avoided anything to do with the others whenever she could.

She realized how lonely she was making herself by avoiding her fellow gods, and BanchouLeomon had given her a sign of hope by leading her to where she could find them. From there, she decided to take BanchouLeomon's Digiegg with her back to the Digital World, where she'd stay by his side and continue seeking her comrades.

Masaru and the others found it an admirable thing to do, and everyone at DATS wished her luck as they sent her back to the Digital World.

Before leaving, Minervamon confided a moment with Masaru, telling him that her hexagonal pin had been given to her sometime after Suguru had become a part of BanchouLeomon, and it wasn't just a coincidence that it was similar to Masaru's tag.

Even if there was the slimmest possibility of seeing his father's soul in the new Digimon to hatch, he would still be a lone Digimon bound to his own Digisoul, and no longer human, and his rightful place would remain in the Digital World.

Masaru was ready to move on too.

He had a lot going for him back in DATS. Although they had solved the crisis with the Demon Lords, Digimon were still drifting into the real world by accident and it was still up to their tactics squad to stop further crisis from occurring. Their location in the Norstein mansion had grown incredibly convenient for them, and Tohma had no qualms with them continuing their confidential operations there.

Satsuma called the crew in to congratulate Masaru in joining the squad as officially as could be. Thankfully, Yushima and Satsuma had recognized the negative effects from the publicity they had forced on their young members, so they revised their outlook where slowly, but surely they could work towards their goals of harmony between humans and Digimon. They would still have to pull through a lot of misunderstandings and mishaps, but they were more than ready to face them.

And Masaru knew he had to face his own...

Yoshino came over and gave her condolences to Masaru when they had the moment to themselves. It seemed she was feeling guilty about bringing up the subject of Tohma when she hadn't known what had happened to Masaru's father, but Masaru just gave her a smile and thanks in return.

" I'll get you some of that special manju sometime. I owe ya."

" Eh?"

Later on that day, Masaru went up to Tohma while he was in the area of the mansion that had been turned into a research lab.

" How are things going on the research?"

" Oh, Masaru," the blond turned around, slightly startled from the other's entrance. It was the familiar sight of Tohma in his lab coat, carrying a clipboard. " It's still a lot of trial-and-error testing at this point. The only thing I can do right now is wait for results, and it's a little frustrating, but things are looking good overall."

" Great. How long's it going to take?"

Tohma gave a mild grunt, not sounding all too pleased. " It's hard to say... It'll likely take years. Maybe even a full decade."

Masaru grunted as well, but his was of the haughty nature. " Then I'll say it'll take less than half of that."

After staring for a moment, Tohma just shrugged.

" Oh yeah, good timing. I've finished a new model of the communication device. Let me check to see if it fits."

From his back pouch, he brought out the brand new device and handed it over to Masaru. It fit just like the old one, much to his satisfaction.

" Wow... Thanks, man."

" Go ahead and take it with you. By the way, it's made out of special material this time, so even someone like Minervamon won't be able to break it so easily. Of course, that includes you too."

" Hey...!"

Tohma just gave a light chuckle as Masaru glowered at him. That smile...

" ...So you really are staying in DATS."

" What, did you think I'd leave?"

Tohma shook his head. " I suppose you wouldn't with Agumon still around."

Masaru made a significant pause before he said, " He's not the only reason..."

Tohma looked at him, mildly surprised.

But the brunet didn't let him say anything about it. " I'm not letting you guys get all the action here! Japan's still MY turf, after all."

" A-Ah..." With that subdued response, Tohma went back to his clipboard for a moment, but he only seemed to be paying casual attention to it. " We'll finally, really be working together again. It's so strange..."

Silence fell upon the two. Indeed, it was so strange...

Masaru idly played around with the communication device dangling on his ear. It was back to that old habit of Tohma... going out of his way to do things for him and not saying anything about it, but Masaru was clearly aware of the reason behind it now.

" You know, before all this happened, I thought everything would go back to how it used to be before Kurata showed up... but it didn't. Not at all," Masaru said, giving Tohma a firm gaze. " And even now, a lot of things are going to feel different... We've been through a lot."

It was an indirect question.

Things had happened between them that he still didn't have answers for, but for the longest time, he didn't even know what questions he wanted answered. Now that he knew, it was just a matter of addressing them...

Tohma stared back at him for a while.

" We've been through a lot... but 'because of all that, I've come out stronger than ever before!' is what you want to say, right?" he said with a smirk.

" Hell ya, of course I have! ...I mean, NO! Something else!" Masaru gave the blond a mild punch, which the other hardly reacted to. " What I was trying to say was... nevermind."

Of course he knew he was stronger. But that wasn't what he was trying to say at all...

He knew a lot more than that. That missing link he'd noticed between the two of them wasn't really there at all. They'd been connected the whole time... He just hadn't been acknowledging it. And... Tohma was probably doing the same thing. That was all there was to it in the end.

He felt the same as Tohma...

He didn't just want to give Tohma punches at that point. He wanted to...

......

He gave a long sigh through his nose as he remembered Yoshino's advice about giving the blond a chance... He didn't want to admit it out loud right there, but he knew he had to be the one to bring it up if they were ever to get anywhere, with the way things were. He just needed a way to make sure he didn't turn back.

No more turning back...

" Tohma, I was thinking we could finish up that sleepover from a long time ago. I'll let Agumon stay home to watch over the house. Are you free after dinner tonight?"

" ...Yeah."

" Then whaddaya say? I'll head back here on my bike."

The blond gave him a strange look, as if suspicious about something. " I suppose it's all right..."

" Sweet, I'll come back after dinner! See you then!"

" Ah..." It looked like Tohma wanted to say more to him, but it was Masaru's turn to have the last word. He had already left the research lab.

Even though he was the one who had asked, even though he knew Tohma would be fine with the sudden arrangement, why was he feeling so jittery inside?

There had been a rain shower earlier in the afternoon which had cooled off the rest of the sunny day, so Masaru put on one of his long sleeves and went to Tohma's place on his bike after dinner.

And when Tohma went to greet him at the door (and he really did answer instead of the usual butler), he pulled the nobleman out of the mansion, much to his confusion.

" We're going on a bike ride."

" Eh?"

" I'm gonna prove to you how well I recovered by riding us both up and down that blasted hill near the mansion. Just sit back and watch!"

" Huh? You've already... W-Wait, Masaru!" He didn't give Tohma much room to argue as he pushed him over onto the back seat of the bike and got in position, and soon they were both setting off to the gates where Masaru had just come in. Tohma had no choice but to hold onto Masaru's waist as they rode off.

The downhill ride was easy, naturally. Masaru just warned Tohma to brace for the speed as they cruised their way down the steep hill. The breeze felt nice and cool against them, relieving them for those few short moments.

There was one corner to turn a little after the hill. He continued on from there, sailing through the streets and breezing past random people who were walking along. He probably knew some of the people he passed by, but he just sped on, not even having to stop for traffic.

Eventually, he turned back before reaching the end of the long road, repeating the path and this time waving to those he had seen just moments earlier. Tohma just hung on as usual, watching the passerbies, watching Masaru...

Masaru stopped when he reached the bottom of the hill to look up at it, awing at the sunset that was visible behind it. Bright red and orange rays of light seared across the peak of the hill and reflected against their skin and clothes, giving everything a warm glow.

The rest of the street view was empty at that point, as people rarely came across the Norstein mansion on the outskirts of town.

" Just as selfish as ever, doing whatever you please..." Tohma said when the air finally got quiet around them, leaving aside the muted noise of the cicadae chattering in the background. " Quite the character as always."

" Hmph. I said I'd repay the favor to you that other day, didn't I?"

Tohma blinked. That day in Masaru's room... " So being selfish is a favor to someone now?"

Masaru shook his head. " Uh... that's not what I meant. Whatever!"

" Whatever..." Tohma repeated.

" Oh, just shut up," Masaru said, relinquishing defeat in his logic. " Say, is your father still at the mansion?"

" No, he went back to Austria the day after we came back from the Digital World."

" Oh..."

Silence fell over them. They hadn't brought up the subject of their families since that day in Masaru's room...

" It'll be August soon..."

" Yeah..." Tohma said quietly.

" That means festival time."

" Festivals..."

Masaru didn't know exactly when Tohma lost his mother in that accident, but with the way Tohma was responding, he knew it must've been around that time. Maybe it had something to do with the reason why Tohma didn't let anyone else know his birthday had just passed too...

" So in the end, you've never been to a festival, have you."

" ......"

" I'll take you to one next month. For Tanabata."

A familiar hollow throat noise came from Tohma as he slowly pulled back to relax his grip from Masaru's waist. " ...I appreciate the invitation, but..."

" And THAT's where it is."

" Huh?"

" You're always doing stuff on your own when it comes to other people, but when it comes to me doing something for you, you always turn me down if I don't punch it out of you first!"

" It's nothing against you, Masaru. It's just..."

" It is to me! Especially when you go off and... and..."

Masaru let the silence overcome them again, but this time it was to keep his own thoughts straight.

' Give him a chance.'

He knew by now he was blushing furiously, but he had to face up to it.

" Can't you just be more honest..."

Tohma blinked in confusion. " Honest? It's not like I've been lying to you, Masaru. I've told you once before that I trust you... So you don't trust me?"

Masaru grit his teeth. ' That tonma really did remember...'

" No, I do! But that's not what I'm talking about..." Trust... that was way back in ElDoradimon, those fleeting moments Tohma had asked the both of them to forget. It was TOHMA who asked, yet... " Not being honest with YOURSELF isn't being a man either."

Masaru turned around and Tohma was looking at him like he'd been accused of something. Which in essence, he was. " I don't care all that much if you lie to me, Tohma. Just don't... don't lie to yourself. I'M the one not getting trusted when you're not being honest to yourself around me."

Tohma was still silent, but it seemed that his mind had been jump-started at least.

Masaru just had to find it in himself to say it, to turn things around...

He took a deep breath.

" I gotta admit, I wasn't honest to myself for a while either..." Masaru started off slowly.

He looked straight into Tohma's eyes, slightly on the downward gaze since the bike was parked on the ascending angle. Tohma returned the gaze, intrigue reflecting off his subdued blue hue.

" But back then, when I read that letter from my dad... you stayed there for me. I wanted you to be there."

" I thought that was all my selfishness..."

" Part of it was," Masaru cut in. " But did you think I would've let you come with me if I didn't want you there?"

Another hollow sound came from Tohma.

Tohma's preoccupied expression...

Ah, an opening.

' Honest with myself... as a man...'

" It's fine, Tohma. You can... You can be a little more selfish with me. I want you to."

Leaning closer, Masaru gently rested his lips on Tohma's bangs. He didn't put in any pressure, but he stayed there long enough to show what he had been going for.

Tohma blinked hard. He continued to sit on the bike with one leg propped to keep the bike standing, yet the look of surprise on his face was as if he'd been sent tumbling through another galaxy by accident. It was followed by a late reaction in the form of a rare, deep blush.

" ...Am I that obvious?"

Masaru couldn't help but chuckle a little at Tohma's dumbfounded appearance, and he returned the blush. " Hell ya. It's old news even to a dull-head like me, pal. I had you figured out way back in rehab, but of course, it all started back in ElDoradimon."

Tohma frowned. " I thought we promised to forget-"

" I still can't! I still can't..." Masaru cut in again. He could feel the blush on his face getting worse. " I tried so hard to forget for a long time after that, but it just kept coming back... And obviously, you can't seem to forget it either."

" ......"

" I'm not going to bother trying to forget that anymore. Just think of it as another selfishness of mine, got it? Like... Like I said, you're free to repay the favor." Mostly to hide his ever-increasing embarrassment, he turned back around on the bike to face the slim glimpse of the sunset over the hill. " Show me what you've got."

Tohma didn't answer at first.

Neither of them said anything or moved from their seat on the bike for what felt like several minutes.

But slowly, the hands that had been loosely resting on Tohma's sides made their way back to Masaru. He simply embraced Masaru from behind on the bike, bringing his forehead to lean against the brunet's back.

He hugged so tightly, yet with so much care... Masaru could just feel the respect and gratitude pouring out of Tohma's grip, and it was overwhelming his senses.

" Masaru... If you're asking for it so much, then hurry back so I can show you how selfish I can be."

Overwhelmed... he couldn't stand still any longer.

That was the answer he'd been waiting for.

He nearly slammed his foot on the pedal to start their uphill climb. He hadn't even gotten much momentum to start with, but he didn't need it. The warmth surrounding him from behind was fueling him plenty. He gripped the bike handles with more friction and pushed forward, one step at a time, non-stop. Gravity worked against him more than ever before, but he refused to give in.

At the top, when he finally made it, he nearly collapsed with his whole body. But Tohma was still there, holding him in place. He was still there, supporting him.

Masaru couldn't steady his breath, however. He quickly recovered and started pedaling again, zooming back to the mansion. After an impatient bout of security checks at the gate, he dashed up to the building, parked his bike in a rush, and then scuttled straight inside the building. Tohma followed him not long after, and without another word, they raced each other up to Tohma's room. On the way, they ran past the butler and various maids who could only stare in bewilderment at their after-dust.

It seemed that they tied, for both of them reached out for the door handle at the same time. They took only faint notice as their hands made contact and they opened the door together. Tohma was panting slightly, but not nearly as much as Masaru, who wobbled onto the nobleman's plush carpet in exhaustion and let himself collapse onto it.

He laid there, collapsed for a while, just catching up with his breath as Tohma closed the door. Then he turned to face up at the ceiling, arms stretched out onto the thick, soft plush. He let out a long breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, Tohma suddenly came into view overhead. Tohma was leaning over him.

And then Tohma leaned forward and sealed their lips. He'd come in so naturally that Masaru couldn't help but tilt his head in response, allowing the opportunity for the blond to press in more comfortably. It seemed Tohma had intended for the kiss to be a short one, as he tried to pull back... But Masaru dived forward and recaptured those lips, and their kiss continued.

Masaru's arms slowly made their way around Tohma's back. He could feel every bit of affection sweeping through Tohma's movements, and his senses were getting overwhelmed again. His eyesight fluttered and lost focus.

It was his first kiss, and already he could feel so many new emotions want to burst out of him. Even though his mind was swirling in a frenzy, it felt so right...

Tohma finally pulled himself up with his arms and the two stared at each other for a moment. It was almost unbelievable, somehow, yet Masaru knew there was no doubt about what had just happened.

" Sometimes, I'd think..." the blond muttered as he continued to contain himself. " The things I did when I was with Kurata were beyond redemption. Even when you said all those things to me, even when I told you to forget it all, it was more like I wanted to forget it all myself. But I couldn't stand myself like that..."

" Hmph, that's more than enough to set me off, you know? Whack you a good one to knock the senses back in ya."

" You knew, didn't you? Then why didn't you? You just went along..."

" W-Well, I had trouble figuring things back then too," Masaru muttered back, flushing in his own disgrace. " And besides, a lot of things were changing around us."

" Around us? How about between us," Tohma stated somberly.

" Bah... so what about those little details?" rolling his eyes quickly, Masaru tightened his grip around Tohma. " At least we're here like this now. Don't worry, man. I was just losing my own sense of mind when I said all those nasty things to you, and I've long forgiven all those things you did while playing the bad guy. Didn't that punch I gave you back then tell you enough?"

" In most aspects, yes," Tohma answered. " But Masaru, don't you ever wonder exactly WHY I went through with Kurata?"

" Whatever it was, it led to us being able to defeat him, didn't it?"

Tohma sighed at the blinking Masaru. " That hardly scratches the surface..."

Masaru gave him a look, intending to say "So what?" which the blond didn't seem to want to take silently in return.

" Part of it had to do with my family, but another big part of it had to do with protecting you guys."

" Protecting... oh, like you did with Ikuto when you dumped him in the sea?"

" Do you have to put it that way... but yes. Even going against you was to protect you. I had the intention to disable you from fighting one way or another back then... even if I had to do this."

Tohma brought his hands up against Masaru's face, pausing as he brushed the brunet's cheeks, then he wrapped them carefully, yet firmly around Masaru's neck.

The contact sent a chill down Masaru's back.

" I didn't want to do it, of course..."

That grip was so familiar... Masaru knew the blond was expecting him to flinch. He almost did... but instead, he brought his own hands over Tohma's before the blond could react.

" You were able to break out of that control... both times," Masaru said calmly. " I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgotten any of it."

" ......But when I was with Kurata, I was fully prepared to do this under my own volition. Even then..."

" That's your strength, Tohma... Me? I was the opposite. I gave into that control so easily... both times."

Control over his own upset emotions, the Demon Lords' control... they were one and the same.

" If it weren't for you... I wouldn't be here, Tohma. That's just why I'm glad to have you," Masaru continued. " My trust in you hasn't changed. It's only gotten stronger."

" ......"

" And besides... you know firsthand what happens if you try going too far with me. Quite literally." His grip on Tohma's hands tightened as his voice pitch lowered dangerously.

Tohma only stared down at him, eyes opened wide.

And then he smiled that natural, nostalgic smile.

" Of course."

Although he said it as if it were obvious, it seemed that finally at that moment, he realized the utter meaning behind Masaru's words and grip.

His own grip on Masaru's neck loosened and he raised his thumbs to press against the brunet's cheeks as he bent down for another kiss.

Again, the first one was relatively short, but with Masaru returning the passion, it seemed he couldn't help but go for another... and another, and another. Masaru was basking in the warmth within the flurry of kisses. Every time Tohma's lips parted from his, the cold would come and he'd seek them to come back, and Tohma's own body was slowly warming the rest of him up...

When they finally released each other long enough to find that they were both breathing rather heavily on each other, Tohma spoke.

" Love..." Tohma said almost inaudibly at first, his lips slightly quivering against Masaru's. His next words rang clearly. " I love you, Masaru."

Masaru had been ready to hear it. " Same here... I love you too, Tohma," came the slow, straightforward reply.

A wet drop hit Masaru's cheek. He nearly jerked at the sudden, pinging chill.

" Tohma...?"

The blond moved back and hurriedly wiped his palm over his eyes. " Huh? I'm not..." He didn't finish his sentence.

Masaru blinked. Mr. Perfect Genius was... crying? ...No, now wasn't the time to think like that. Just who was the one letting himself get carried away by that perfect genius...

Tohma swiftly brought his hand away, as if pretending that he hadn't wiped his eyes in the first place, although it'd been so obvious. His eyes were still watering up, but the moisture stayed contained within them. Masaru let out a short, voiceless "heh." No wonder...

Those tears... It was just sweat from Tohma's heart.

Masaru wiped the moisture off his own cheek and brought Tohma back down against him.

" Hey, weren't you going to show me how selfish you could be? What's with all the confessions now, huh?"

Tohma... he felt so warm, both physically and how connected he felt spiritually right now.

Tohma sniffled into Masaru's shoulder. " Mmph. You asked for it..."

" Good morning, Master..."

The next morning, Gaomon appeared before them in rather... unexpected attire.

Various maids were going about the hallway, doing business as usual with opening curtains and cleaning up areas, although they had suspiciously large smiles on their faces.

Masaru made a rather obvious snort and covered his mouth when he saw the Digimon, while Tohma stared in horror.

If it weren't for his bright blue fur and red gloves poking out, Gaomon might have blended in with the rest of the maids somehow... He was wearing a petit-sized maid outfit, covered head to toe with white and pink decorative lacings.

" Ah... I'm so sorry, Gaomon."

" Th-There's nothing you need to apologize for, Master..."

It seemed that Gaomon had been asked to sleep with the maids the night previous, and they had had their fun dressing him up... He was in so many tight dressings that he was unable to take any of it off on his own, especially with his gloves on.

" D-Did you at least get any sleep?"

" Yes, Master. They did this only a short while ago..."

" Here, let me take that off..."

Tohma took his time to take off all the dressings (but not before taking a picture without the Digimon's notice).

Masaru stood by and watched. " So Tohma... you had a birthday a short while ago, right?"

The blond blinked a few times as he continued undoing the lacing. " Yeah... what about it?"

" How old does that make you now?"

" Fifteen."

" Then that means I'm older than you."

" Yes, it does."

" Well, then..." Thoughts about the previous night ran through Masaru's head and he found himself blushing, unbeknownst to Tohma. " Since we're on pretty even grounds at DATS now, this makes me your Senpai in a way, so..."

Tohma raised an eyebrow, realizing what the other was getting at. " It's only a few months difference, and I've still got the upper hand when it comes to a lot of things, Masaru. Just keep leaving it to me from now on."

" Ah?" Just like that... " Things won't always be like that! I'm gonna get you one day, just watch!"

" Hmm, we'll see about that."

Gaomon just kept to himself as Tohma tended to him. As Tohma took off the numerous pieces, he made a blushing and grumbling Masaru hold them.

" It must've been hard to move around in all that clothes. There, you're all set."

" Thank you very much, Master."

Tohma called one of the smiling maids over to take the clothes back.

" So what's the schedule for today?" Masaru asked.

" Well, normally, I go to check my experiments after breakfast, then I report in to DATS until lunch if I have nothing else..."

" We don't have to be at the headquarters all the time, right? Why don't we go around town a bit?"

" You just got back, though... you should probably spend some more time in headquarters for the transition first. I bet Captain Satsuma's going to give some new motivational speech to us today."

" Muh..."

Tohma sighed and grinned. " We'll have plenty of other opportunities for dates later, Masaru."

" D...Da... I was thinking about going to the boxing gym or something, you..."

He was going to go off with some insults, but Tohma's smile stopped him again.

' Bastard...'

Gaomon looked up between the two boys. " Master, I have already eaten breakfast, so I'll head down to headquarters and prepare some tea for you if you'd like."

" Thanks Gaomon, if you would."

While the Digimon trotted off, Masaru gave Tohma a questioning look.

Tohma just indicated him to come over. " Come, breakfast is this way."

" So about Gaomon..."

Tohma seemed to be hiding his own blush, but it didn't work well as Masaru overstepped him for a closer look. The noble didn't need to say anything, and it was apparent that he KNEW he didn't have to say anything, yet that didn't stop Masaru from giving him a smug grin.

Tohma looked like he wanted to pout, but he wouldn't. So instead, he sighed, straightened his stance, and lightly took Masaru's arm as he led them towards the breakfast room.

In the end, Masaru made Tohma go to the boxing gym with him after DATS anyway. They shared a good multitude of revenge punches against each other and cleared out any of the other gym-goers who happened to come across them on the way, except for Hayase's ol' coach, who still remembered them.

" Hyaaa! It felt so nice to loosen up after all that time."

" I honestly wonder where you get all that energy sometimes, Masaru," Tohma told him when they had come back to the Norstein mansion afterwards. Masaru had ridden them to the gym, once again on his bike. " If a Digimon shows up later tonight..."

" Pure manly guts. If it comes, it comes. And YOU're one to talk, keeping up with me on all this. What about YOU?"

" I'm just maintaining my upper hand. I can't let the likes of you catch up to me, after all."

Masaru rolled his eyes.

" Say, since so much has been renovated in the mansion already, why don't you put a little boxing gym in there too? The old DATS headquarters had one, after all.

" Ah... I hadn't thought of that. That's a good idea."

" 'Course. All you think about these days is whatever's related to your research and me, isn't it."

Tohma just stood there on the front porch, shaded from the sun, unwilling to answer.

Ah... Masaru didn't mean to hit the bull's-eye with that. " Well, then this one's for you."

" Hmph, more like for the both of us..."

" All the better."

" ...Ah," Tohma agreed. There was a moment of pause in the empty lot in front of the Norstein mansion. " Thanks, Masaru."

" Nn? For what?" Masaru said nimbly.

" For being you."

He wasn't actually so surprised to hear it. Still, hearing it left an exhilarating tingling in his chest.

" Hey, same back to you. Or at least... thanks for being yourself when you're not being an asshole."

Tohma sighed. " The same back at you, for that."

Another silence, and they both started chuckling a little at the same time.

It truly was a good feeling, having Tohma with him like this. And to think it was just their beginning...

" I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good night."

With that, Tohma turned around and went up to the doorway, bidding farewell with his eyes.

Masaru blinked back.

" Sure... see you."

What, no goodbye kiss? It was just... no one else was around, so he thought it was a good opportunity... Of course, he wasn't going to admit to having such corny expectations. And not that he was really having those expectations in the first place.

He mentally laughed to himself. Of course not, it WAS just their beginning, after all...

He walked back to his bike on the pavement, ready to depart. Unlike the porch, the late-day sun was blaring upon him and the pavement, and it was a pretty hot day, so he kind of wanted to get going. He was just about to kick up the stand...

" Masaru."

Masaru turned around to suddenly see Tohma right up next to him, grabbing his arm and moving in closer... and all thoughts of the weather went straight out of his head.

A simple pressure against the lips, an abrupt display of longing.

The blond's other hand whisked up into Masaru's hair, touching the ponytail and then settling onto the brunet's neck for a brief moment until he pulled back.

Masaru couldn't take his eyes off the lingering affection in Tohma's stare.

But he didn't have to do it on his own, as Tohma just as quickly brought his hands back to his sides and said his real goodbye. Until the door shut behind the blond as he went inside, Masaru just stood there, one hand still gripping the handle on his bike.

There was nothing left but to head home for the day.

He'd see Tohma again tomorrow. Tomorrow, Tohma would probably be back to his usual cold, calculating self, and Masaru would have to chip away at the ice block to get anywhere with him again. But somehow, he didn't mind that one bit now. In fact, he looked forward to it. In a way, it was just more fighting to be done, more walls to smash down with his fist.

Because when all was set and ready, Tohma would be there to give him the warmth and support he needed to carry on, no matter how distant or intimate of form they came in. And how much Masaru treasured that...

A relieving breeze sped through him as he sailed downhill from the Norstein mansion, and he greeted some of the familiar faces on his way home.

When he turned the corner to his street, an unusual wind blew past him, and he braked when he realized the white noise of the cicadae had vanished momentarily with the wind. He stood there in wonder for a while, staring at and listening to the trees nearby, swaying with his ponytail... as if something or someone had passed by.

But then the wind calmed down, allowing the cicadae to start chattering again, the intensity of their song matching the heat of the air. The atmosphere was the same as it was in any summer there.

The slightest of smiles arose on Masaru's face, and he pushed the pedal once more to continue on his way.

Cycle

End

Author blab

Yes I now claimz longest non-crossover Savers and ToMaTo fic!! w00t! Now if only there were challengers...! orz

Reminder that there are some sketches for certain scenes in the fic on tomato_pmsinfirm_org (change _ to periods), as well as the lyrics/song this is based off... as well as the proper formatting for this fic as a whole.

Tohma's "July" birthday... Completely fictional for this story! Don't take it as official.

So it's not a completely happy ending for Savers... yet... honestly closer to the ending I had been imagining for Savers as a whole (just the whole Suguru not coming back part). Of course, I knew Toei would go with some kind of happy-happy end as it did, but at the same time, I was still heavily contemplating this more bittersweet kind of happening as a possibility.

I can't resist, so I'm thinking about doing a one-shot sequel in Tohma's perspective to make up for all the irritation of not being able to do it in this fic. I haven't even started writing it though, so I have no idea when I'll actually get to it. I'm just pretty set on some of the events and that it's going to take place a year after this fic's ending.

Sorry if you were expecting the rest of the details of that one scene... xD I won't even let you know how far they went... yet. If people want it enough, I could avenge for it in the sequel? Lemon certainly won't be the main course for the sequel either, but it could make a nice dessert? LET ME KNOW PUREAZE...~

If you want to be all sneaky and ninja-like (but I do like it best hearing from you personally), I have a poll up on my ff.n profile. As long as you have an account, you can vote, and I won't know who voted, just the totals.

In the meanwhile... *hugs the pair* TwT Reviews are much loved.~


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